Harry Potter and the Animorphs 1: The Beginning
by OctopusPatronus
Summary: Series Summary: Instead of five American teenagers, Elfangor gives morphing powers to four young Hogwarts students. It's up to Harry Potter and his friends to stop the Yeerk invasion, even while Voldemort's war threatens to tear them apart. The Beginning: One night during detention, Harry discovers that there are far stranger things in the universe than magic.
1. Chapter 1

Before we begin, a few notes:

The first book of this series is complete. I wrote it all in a rush maybe a year or two ago, and readers from the site where I originally posted it say that it's actually a surprisingly good story despite the weird premise and roughness of the first draft. However, I am now in the very slow process of edits and rewrites. Please be patient—as I said, the story _is_ complete, it's not one of the many WIPs that I've abandoned over the years, it's just going to take some time to post.

I have an obsessive knowledge of Harry Potter, but haven't read Animorphs since I was a kid. Wikipedia is helpful for technical details but not so much for detailed characterization. So if I screw something up, I do apologize in advance.

Pairings are mostly undecided, but a few will be non-canon and may include het, slash, or fem-slash at my whimsy. As of the first book, however, there are no pairings (they're only eleven-years-old, after all). And whatever the pairings turn out to be, there shall be no explicit sexy-times at any point in this series.

The only thing that may bump up the rating is the violence, because… yeah. This is about a bunch of young magic-users transforming into wild animals in order to fight a guerilla-style war against a race of alien parasites. Despite the goofy-sounding premise, the story is played completely straight. We're talking horrific injuries and death dealt to and dealt by children, with all the psychological trauma that implies. If you saw the title and thought this would be a tongue-in-cheek parody, sorry bub but this ain't it.

Most importantly, feedback is not only welcome but encouraged! Good, bad, tell me I suck and my mother dresses me funny, I don't care, just please share your thoughts if you do decide to read. Comments are my writer drug.

Anyway, I think that's all for now, so please enjoy. Thank you for reading :)

* * *

**M**y name is Harry Potter.

Not very long ago, though it seems like something out of a past life now, I lived with my uncle Vernon, my aunt Petunia and my cousin Dudley. I had a fairly normal life I suppose. I went to school, didn't have any friends, was bullied by my cousin… not necessarily a _happy _life, but it was normal.

My aunt and uncle despised me, just like they despised my parents. They favored Dudley and treated me like a troublesome pet most of the time, the type of pet that would tear apart the house if they left it there alone and unsupervised, but could embarrass them at any minute if they brought it with them. Of course, sometimes strange, unexplainable things _did_ happen when I was around: Dudley's ugliest hand-me-downs would shrink to toddler-size if I didn't want to wear them, and my hair would grow back overnight after particularly bad haircuts. If I was being chased by Dudley and his gang, I would suddenly find myself somewhere safe with no memory of how I got there… On one particularly noteworthy incident a zoo, I spoke with a Burmese python and the glass covering its habitat suddenly vanished, allowing it to escape from its captivity.

As stupid as it sounds, I honestly thought they were just unusual coincidences. I thought I was the same as all the other children at my school. Strange things happen all the time, after all. It wasn't my fault that they kept happening around me.

But then the letter came.

All my life, I had never been sent mail before. But about a week before my eleventh birthday, a letter addressed to me arrived at the house. Uncle Vernon took the letter and destroyed it before I could read it, but the next day there were more copies of the letter. And the next day there were still more. No matter what uncle Vernon and aunt Petunia did, no matter where they took us, the letters still came.

Finally, a man was sent to deliver the letter personally. I had never seen anything like him. He was a mountain of a man, nearly twice as tall as a regular man and roughly five times as wide, with a face covered by a thick, bushy beard and wild black hair, hands the size of rubbish-bin lids, and feet the size of baby dolphins. He said that his name was Hagrid, and he told me that I was a wizard.

He told me that he worked for a special school, Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, where my parents learned magic when they were my age. And by that time, Hagrid had started a fire in the fireplace using magic and cursed a pig's tail onto my cousin Dudley, so I knew that magic was real. Unsurprisingly, I agreed to go to Hogwarts.

In the wizarding world I learned that when I was only one-year-old, my parents died trying to protect me from an evil wizard called Voldemort, who had been terrorizing the wizarding world for years. I also learned that I was famous because I had somehow survived when Voldemort tried to kill me, reflecting his curse back and destroying him instead; the only mark Voldemort's curse left on me was the lightning-bolt shaped scar on my forehead. Everyone in the wizarding world knew my name and who I was. At Hogwarts, I found where I truly belonged. I found friends.

I also found enemies.

"This is servants' work. I cannot believe they're making us do this," Malfoy drawled. Draco Malfoy is another student at Hogwarts in the same year as me. He has a pointed face, pale skin, sleek golden-blond hair, and pale grey eyes. Like me, he's rather short and skinny compared to most people our age, but that's pretty much our only similarity. He's rich, very spoiled, and a huge snob, so of course he hadn't stopped complaining all night.

We were in the Forbidden Forest, which is apparently far less forbidden than the name implies, because we were there to serve a detention. Hagrid is still one of my good friends at Hogwarts, and it was by trying to help him that I got this detention.

Hagrid loves magical animals. And as far as he's concerned, the more ferocious, dangerous and aggressive the animal, the better. He won a dragon egg during a card game a few months ago, and though keeping dragons as pets was illegal in the wizarding world, Hagrid had always wanted one.

Well, the little dragon that came out of the egg didn't stay little for very long. Did you know that Norwegian Ridgebacks learn how to breathe fire earlier than any other dragon? _And_ did you know that Norwegian Ridgebacks have poisonous fangs?

So obviously Hagrid wouldn't be able to keep the dragon a secret very long. After my friend, Ron Weasley, was bitten by little 'Norbert', another of my friends, Hermione Granger, and I smuggled the dragon out of the school.

Unfortunately, we weren't the only ones who knew about the dragon. Malfoy knew we would try to smuggle it out that night and he attempted to go after us. When he was caught by a teacher, of course he ratted us out. Professor McGonagall didn't believe that we were really getting rid of a dragon, but there was no avoiding the fact that we were all out of bed long after hours.

The three of us, as well as another student in our year, Neville Longbottom, all received detentions. Neville was caught out after hours because he had heard about the dragon and attempted to find and warn Hermione and I that we would be in trouble.

All things considered, you can see why I wasn't in the mood to deal with Malfoy's complaining. "Give it a rest, Malfoy. This is your fault anyway."

_"My_ fault?" sneered Malfoy. _"I_ wasn't the one wandering around with a dragon, now, was I?"

Neville looked between us, confusion on his tear-streaked face. He had been crying most of the way down to the forest. Neville is a round-faced, pudgy boy with dark brownish-blond hair and hazel eyes. Shy, forgetful, and more than a bit of a loser, he's considered by most of Hogwarts to be a crybaby and even a bit dim-witted. Many considered it a mystery how Neville got chosen for Gryffindor house, which was known for students who were brave and daring. "There really was a dragon?" he asked timidly. "But Professor McGonagall said you were lying to trick Malfoy…"

"Of course there was really a dragon, idiot," said Malfoy. "Weasley didn't get that bite on his hand from a schnauzer."

"You don't have to be mean about it," Hermione admonished. A fairly plain-looking girl, Hermione has lots of bushy brown hair, brown eyes, and prominent front teeth. But Hermione is probably the smartest, most knowledgeable person I know. She loves to read and study in the library, and she gets better grades than anyone in our year. You would never guess that her parents were Muggles—that is, people who can't do magic.

"No, but being mean about it does make things more fun," said Malfoy. He put his basket of plants and fungi on the ground and sat down on a fallen tree. "This nonsense is intolerable. First they send us out in the forest in the middle of the night—to punish us for being out of bed after hours, no less!—to find potions ingredients with that oaf, Hagrid, who probably couldn't tell dittany from Devil's Snare—"

"Lay off him, Malfoy," I said angrily, "at least he isn't a prat like you."

"—after it was his dragon that started all this in the first place," Malfoy continued, ignoring me. "And now he's gone and left us here in the middle of the forest to go God knows where…"

"He said we wouldn't be able to go any further if he didn't take care of something first," said Hermione.

"Right," Malfoy said incredulously. "What he's really done is probably snuck off to have a drink from that flask of his. I can't believe they haven't sacked him. He's not even a proper wizard, _and_ he's a drunk."

"Well, I can't blame him if that is what he's doing," I said. "Being around you would drive anyone to drink."

"Funny, I was just about to say the same about you," Malfoy replied.

"Would you just stop complaining for two seconds?" I asked. "If you've really got such a problem with this then you can just go back up to the castle and pack your things. Frankly, school will be a lot better after you're expelled."

Malfoy looked down his nose at me and said, "Potter, I would never do anything in order to make something better for you."

Something rustled through the brush nearby. My heart lurched with surprise. Neville let out a startled cry. Malfoy sat bolt upright, instantly on alert. Hermione drew her wand.

"What on earth was that?" Malfoy hissed. He stood so he could be closer to the group.

We listened intently for several minutes, but we didn't hear the sound again.

"This is insanity. Where is Hagrid? Why hasn't he come back yet?" Malfoy demanded, as if any of us had the answers. "I've had enough of this. We're all going back to the castle and that's that, they won't expel all of us."

"But Hagrid told us to wait here," said Hermione worriedly.

"I wonder where he is," I said. "Should he be taking this long?"

"You don't think something could be wrong, do you?" asked Neville.

I cupped my hand to my mouth to try calling out to Hagrid, but Malfoy grabbed my arm. "Don't! Are you trying to advertize our whereabouts to the wild animals out here? I heard there are werewolves living in this forest."

"But what if he _is_ in trouble?" I asked, reluctant to admit that Draco Malfoy of all people had a good point. I looked in the direction Hagrid had gone. After a brief moment's consideration, I knew what I had to do. "I'm going to look for him."

Neville's eyes widened with fear. Hermione looked half worried about what might happen to me and half exasperated by my apparent death-wish. It was a familiar expression. "But Hagrid told us to—"

"I know what he told us," I said, brushing her off. I set down my basket of plants and drew my wand.

"I'm getting bored of just sitting here," said Malfoy. "I'll go with you."

I grumbled a little, but to be honest I wasn't eager to go into the forest alone. Even if Malfoy's company wasn't exactly enjoyable, it was better than the alternative. "Fine," I said. "I guess if we get attacked by a werewolf, I'll have time to get away while it's eating you."

"The bravery and nobility of Gryffindor house is truly worthy of legend," Malfoy said.

Malfoy is not a Gryffindor. He's a Slytherin, the house known for ambition, cunning, and stuck-up snobs. Gryffindors and Slytherins have been rivals for generations—we were only the latest in a long line of them. Sneaky, underhanded, and generally slimy all around, the Slytherins still like to think that they're superior to the other houses.

As I led the way in the direction Hagrid had gone, Malfoy smirked at Hermione and Neville over his shoulder. "See you later, then, assuming the werewolves don't eat you while we're gone."

"Why do you have to do that?" I asked as we walked easily down the trail Hagrid left behind.

"Did you see Longbottom's face?" Malfoy asked with a grin. "I thought he was going to wet himself. He's just too easy."

I rolled my eyes and decided to ignore him, focusing on the trail ahead. Without an audience, Malfoy eventually gave up talking as well. The forest was dark and more than a little bit spooky beyond the glow of our wands, with thick brambles, inky black shadows, and swirling clouds of fog obscuring anything that might be lurking in the distance, watching us.

We had been walking for a while when Malfoy nearly stumbled over a tree root. That caught my attention and made me look back at him. I had never known Malfoy to be particularly clumsy. I found that he was looking wide-eyed at the forest around us instead of paying attention to the path. He was clearly more frightened of the dangers of the forest than he liked to pretend.

"Scared, Malfoy?"

"You wish," Malfoy sneered.

"Oh, really?" I said. "Not at all afraid of those werewolves you keep talking about? Then what were you looking for?"

Malfoy smirked and arched one of his pale eyebrows at me. "I thought you didn't want to hear what I had to say?"

"I don't, but if you keep looking out there instead of at the path, you're going to trip and break your neck," I said.

"How touching, it almost sounds as though you care," Malfoy said.

I sighed. "Again, I don't. But I'd be the one who had to drag you back to the school."

Malfoy glared petulantly at me. "You know, I may just break my neck out of spite."

"You would," I said.

I turned to continue walking, only to find that there was a tree right in front of me that I could have sworn wasn't there before. I stared at it for a short time. I turned around again to look where we'd come. The path was being slowly encroached by the crawling tendrils of a thorn-covered bush.

"The plants move!" I realized.

"What?" Malfoy turned around to look. "Well, yes," he said, as if it were obvious. "Of course they do. They are Walking Willows and Ambling Brambles, after all. Wait, did you not know that?"

"No," I said. "Should I have?"

"If you paid attention at all in Herbology, perhaps. Or weren't raised by Muggles," he said with a sneer. An expression of alarm appeared on his face. "Wait, do you mean you've been leading the way all this time and you didn't know that the plants here moved? How do you know where we're going?"

I gaped at him, mouth open. "I…"

"Please don't tell me you've gotten us lost!"

"Alright," I said, so I didn't tell him. That didn't stop him from figuring it out, though.

"How on earth have you lived this long and stayed so stupid!" Malfoy shouted.

"Well, why didn't you say anything?" I demanded.

"I thought you knew what you were doing," said Malfoy. "Obviously I won't be making _that _assumption twice."

"It's not that bad," I said. "We can climb a tree, find out where the castle is, and we'll just head straight in that direction."

"I bet I can climb faster than you," said Malfoy, heading for the tallest tree nearby.

"You'll lose that bet," I said, grabbing a hold of one of the tree's low branches. "I'll get to the top before you."

"I wager three galleons I get to the top, find the castle, and start climbing down before you can even get to the top," Malfoy said.

"You're on," I said. We stopped talking, putting all our focus in climbing as fast as we could. I had plenty of experience in climbing—if it wasn't Dudley and his gang chasing me up a tree, it was Aunt Marge's monster of a bulldog. But Malfoy was clearly no slouch, able to keep up with me and even get ahead of me once.

We reached the top at the same time. A tie still meant that I technically won the bet, but Malfoy didn't seem too annoyed as he handed over three shiny golden galleons. Galleons, along with silver sickles and bronze knuts, are the wizarding world's currency. One galleon is roughly equal to about five pounds.

Before I knew about the wizarding world, all those years I lived in that cupboard under the stairs, I never had any money besides the odd pence or two that I managed to squirrel away without the Dursleys noticing. Little did I know that my parents had left a fortune when they died, waiting for me in the wizarding world. I don't even know how much I have. For all I know, I could even be as rich as Malfoy's family. It certainly looked like a fortune the last time I saw it, piles and piles of gold and silver completely filling an entire vault of Gringotts Bank.

"Will we still be able to tell which way to go when we get down?" Malfoy asked.

I looked at the castle in the distance, then back down at the ground below us. I held up one of my newly won galleons. "If we have a marker."

Carefully, I lined the galleon up with the castle and dropped it. The coin landed softly at the base of the tree in a bed of pine needles and fallen leaves.

"Looks like we'll be able to find it easily when we get down there," I observed. "I can still see it all the way up here."

I started to climb down, but Malfoy nudged my arm. "Wait, let's just stay up here for a moment."

"Wear yourself out trying to keep up with me, did you?"

"Hardly, I just want to have a look around," said Malfoy. "I mean, look at that, Potter."

Gazing out over a sea of trees with mountains rising in the distance, I decided that it wouldn't be so terrible to enjoy the view for a while. Up there the light wasn't blocked out by the forest canopy, allowing us to see much farther and more clearly than we could down below. A far cry from the smell of damp and decay below, up here the air was crisp and cold. The swirling fog didn't seem so ominous and foreboding anymore as it floated over the forest like low-lying clouds. Hogwarts castle stood proudly, its windows alight and glittering; it looked to me much as it had the first night we arrived at the start of term.

And there above us was a sky full of stars, clear and unobstructed. After nearly a year of Astronomy classes it wasn't a new sight, but it was still a beautiful one.

We sat for a time, just silently taking in everything around us. Of course Malfoy was the one to break the silence, though for once he didn't seem as annoying as he could have been.

"There I am," he said, pointing up at the sky.

"What?"

"Do we also need to add Astronomy to the list of classes you pay no attention to?" asked Malfoy. He leaned closer so I could more clearly see where he was pointing. "See, it's the constellation Draco. My stars."

"Oh," I said. It seemed obvious now that he said it that Malfoy had the same name as a constellation, though it hadn't really occurred to me before. I imagined the dragon coiling around Polaris before our eyes.

Because we were both looking up at the stars, we saw another light suddenly appear in the sky. Small, bluish-white and glowing, it looked like a comet at first. But as we watched, it began moving very oddly. It flew one way, then listed to the side, spiraled in yet another direction, and veered wildly in a circle.

"What is that?" Malfoy asked.

I squinted up at the strange object. The more I looked, the more I thought I could see straight lines and forms in the center of the glow. "It doesn't look like a shooting star."

A shiver went up my spine.

Malfoy became very tense beside me. "Potter? … I think it's shooting towards _us."_

The object was growing larger very quickly and losing altitude. My heart leapt up in my throat. As Malfoy screamed and quickly started to climb down the tree, I remained frozen where I was, unable to move.

"Potter? POTTER!" Malfoy yelled. He reached up and yanked on my hand, finally pulling me out of my frozen state. We scrambled down the tree, putting the speed of our earlier climb to shame and earning more than a few scratches and bruises due to panicked carelessness.

Mere seconds passed before I could feel the massive object's approach pounding through the air. We jumped the last several feet, free-falling as the object crashed into the top of the tree. The tree snapped as easily as if it were a toothpick, not even slowing the object's descent as it ploughed its way deeper into the forest, engulfed in flames.

We hit the ground below, hard. Then we could only cover ourselves as best we could and hope we wouldn't be crushed by the broken trees falling all around us.

After several seconds of chaos, the ground stopped rumbling beneath me and the hail of debris began to slow. I carefully uncurled myself from my defensive posture and looked around.

There had clearly been many close calls. A huge tree had collapsed only a few feet away from where I was crouched. I took a few shuddering breaths and looked myself over for injuries. Beyond a few scrapes and bruises, I seemed alright.

"What was… Malfoy?" I looked around again. Hadn't Malfoy landed right beside me? Where could he have gone? "Malfoy? Where—"

I found him lying motionless on the other side of the fallen tree, blood on his forehead. One of the branches of the tree had clearly struck him as it fell.

"Malfoy, wake up." I shook his shoulder. "Can you hear me? Wake up."

Malfoy groaned and began to move sluggishly. "Head hurts."

"I can't imagine why that would be," I said, relieved that he wasn't dead. "Can you move?"

He started pushing himself up, needing only a little help from me despite seeming wobbly on his feet. Wizards are capable of surviving injuries that would kill a Muggle, and Malfoy was no exception. He wiped some of the blood from his forehead with the back of his wrist.

"Did I fall out of the tree?" he asked.

"It's more like the tree fell on you, really."

Malfoy looked at me with a confused expression on his face, then up at the broken top of the tree. His eyes widened as his attention returned to me. "Where is it? What was that thing?"

We looked at the trail of destruction the strange object had left behind: trees snapped in half or torn right out of the ground, small fires burning throughout, and a trail easily twenty feet wide ploughed through the ground. We couldn't see the object itself, but its bluish-white glow stood in stark contrast with the darkness around us. It would be easy to find.

"Are you alright? Do you think you can walk?" I asked.

Malfoy nodded. "I think so."

Though he staggered on the first few steps, he was able to walk normally before long. We slowly made our way, following the trail left by the falling object. As we went, we found bits of warped metal debris that must have fallen off of the object.

The trail led us to a large gully that might have once been the site of a river. The glow seemed to be coming from there. Carefully, uncertain of what we might find, we approached the edge and looked down.

Crashed into the opposite wall of the gully were the crumpled remains of a spaceship.


	2. Chapter 2

Thank you for reading, and thanks again for those who've left comments!

Just to reiterate, I don't have any of my old Animorphs books anymore and I read them way back when I was in middle school, so my memory of certain events are fuzzy at best. Though I've done research via relevant Wikis and the Pop Arena's Opinionated Animorphs Book Guide videos, that doesn't really help with precise characterization for anybody besides the main Animorphs, aka Sirs Not-Appearing-In-This-Fanfic. It won't be an issue most of the time, but because Elfangor and Visser 3 play a large role in this chapter, I thought I should warn you.

[Also, thought-speak will appear within square brackets like this, because 's formatting renders the proper thought-speak brackets invisible. Hopefully I can play around in html and get the right brackets to show up in the next chapter.]

With all that said and out of the way—brace yourselves, incoming info-dump!

* * *

**Chapter Two**

**W**e didn't move. For several seconds, we didn't even breathe.

"What is that?" Malfoy finally asked, his voice hushed.

"It… it looks like a spaceship," I said. It was like something out of the science fiction books I read when I was a kid. The main body of the ship was oblong, shaped something like a cigar, and though they had been badly damaged during the crash I could see the remnants of stubby wings sticking out each side. There was an odd structure coming out the back of it that arched over the ship's body.

"Spaceship? Like the ones Muggles have?" Malfoy asked. "Do you think there are any Muggles in there?"

I couldn't answer. What I was thinking was… _impossible_. We couldn't really be looking at a UFO. It had to be Muggles, like Malfoy said.

"We should leave, shouldn't we?" Malfoy asked. "If there really are Muggles in there, we can't let ourselves be Seen."

"No. We have to help them," I said reluctantly. "They might be hurt after that crash."

We climbed down the edge of the gully. My heart was pounding so hard I could hardly hear anything else. My skin prickled into gooseflesh the closer we got to the strange craft. It felt like there was a strange energy in the air, crackling all around us like static before a lightning-storm.

When we reached the bottom of the gully, we were uncertain of what to do next. There was no visible door on the ship, and no other way to get inside that we could see.

"Hello?" Malfoy asked suddenly, making me jump. "Is there anyone in there? Are you alright?"

Nothing seemed to happen.

"Come on, let's go," Malfoy said urgently. "We can tell the professors, they'll know what to do."

The bluish-white light suddenly vanished. Malfoy gasped and grabbed onto the sleeve of my robes, shielding himself from the strange craft with my body.

"Yeah… Maybe we should leave after all," I said. A knot of dread formed in my stomach. Maybe even then I knew something was about to happen, something that would once again change my life forever—and this time not for the better.

Part of the ship's hull started to move, pulling down to reveal an opening that bathed us in bright light. A chill went over my body. Something was standing silhouetted in the doorway, and it definitely wasn't human.

"Potter, what is that?" Malfoy whispered fearfully.

"I… I don't know."

It looked almost like a centaur; its upper half was mostly human, while the lower half was built like a horse or a deer. But unlike a centaur, it was completely covered in short blue fur and had no human-like head of hair. On top of its head were two eye-stalks that turned this way and that independently of each other. It also had another set of eyes fixed in its face where a normal centaur would have them, but they were large and almond-shaped, and framing them was a pair of pointed, tufted ears.

It appeared to have no mouth and its nose consisted of a set of fleshy pink vertical slits. Its tail was nothing like that of a horse or a deer, looking more like a scorpion tail than anything. The tail was long and powerfully muscled and where the scorpion would have a stinger, this creature had a sickle-shaped blade.

We watched, transfixed, as the creature—the _alien—_ stepped down from its ship. It stared right back at us with its large eyes, its smaller stalk-eyes scanning the area around us.

"I-Is it a centaur?" Malfoy asked, his voice barely a whisper.

"Know many centaurs with bladed tails and blue skin?"

"It—I don't—Maybe someone cursed it to look that way," Malfoy replied. "Or maybe it's deformed."

"Really, Malfoy? It came from a spaceship! It's an alien!"

Malfoy glared at me. "Oh, _that's_ so much more plausible."

Suddenly, the alien paused. One of its seven-fingered hands went to its side, and to my surprise, the alien staggered and fell to the ground. Then I saw the large sizzling, bleeding wound on the side of its body.

I took a cautious step toward the alien, but Malfoy pulled me back with a strangled shout.

The alien looked up at us. [Do not be afraid.]

I stared in shock. It felt as though the alien had spoken directly into my mind. It was as if I could hear his voice inside my head as easily as I could hear my own thoughts. By Malfoy's startled expression, it seemed obvious that he heard it, too.

[Please,] said the alien. [I do not have much time.]

My gaze flickered warily to the blade on the alien's tail.

[I will not harm you,] the alien vowed. His voice, if it could be called a voice, was strong despite his injury. It gave me the impression of nobility, someone who could be trusted. His tone was strangely fond, as if he knew us already and liked us. [There is much I have to tell you.]

Well, was I a Gryffindor or wasn't I? I stepped closer, with Malfoy following a half-step behind and clearly ready to run at a moment's notice. I knelt down next to the alien and looked at his wound.

"Do you know any spells that can heal that?" I asked Malfoy.

He shook his head. "I… we're just first years. Maybe we can go get someone who can help?"

[There is not enough time,] said the alien. One of his stalk-eyes whipped up to look at something behind us. [There are two more of you approaching.]

We turned to look.

"Harry? Malfoy?" It was Hermione's voice. "Are you alright? We heard an explosion and we saw this light—"

She appeared at the top of the rise and let out a startled shout when she saw us with the alien. Neville was beside her, his eyes wide, confusion and wonder on his face.

"It's okay," I said. "Hermione, Neville, come down here. He's not going to hurt anyone."

As Hermione and Neville slowly made their way down into the gully, the alien returned his attention to Malfoy and I. [My name is Elfangor-Sirinial-Shamtul. I have much to tell you.]

Hermione and Neville cautiously approached. She was letting him hold onto her arm for reassurance.

"Granger," Malfoy said. He pointed at Elfangor's wound. "Can you heal that?"

"I-I don't know if—"

"If anyone can do it," I told her, "it's you, Hermione."

She looked at me and nodded after a moment, reassured. She knelt down beside me and began inspecting the wound.

[Don't trouble yourself. The wound is fatal, nothing can change that now,] said Elfangor. He looked at me. [There is something in my ship that I need. It's a blue cube that is four inches in each dimension. You should be able to find it easily.]

I got up and headed for the ship, wondering if the cube was something that would heal him. The inside of the ship was an almost searing bright white after the darkness outside. There were strange symbols on the walls. I found a small hologram in the cockpit.

In the hologram, four creatures that looked like Elfangor were standing close together. One looked exactly like Elfangor—in fact, it was probably Elfangor himself. Beside him was something that was clearly of the same species, but smaller and more delicate. A female, perhaps. In front of them were two even smaller ones, which I guessed were children. It was a family portrait, I realized. The Andalites in the hologram were Elfangor's family. It was such a surprisingly human thing to find in an alien spacecraft that it stayed in my mind for a long time.

As I continued to search the ship, I could still hear Elfangor speaking in my thoughts. [I wish that I did not have to put this burden on ones so young. In time, I hope that you will find others who can help you stop the invasion.]

"Invasion?" I heard Malfoy echo through the open door of the ship, his voice angry and suspicious. "Who's invading? Your people?"

[No. My people are the Andalites. We are enemies of the Yeerks,] said Elfangor. [We have fought them on countless worlds, and continue to fight them today. We came to battle them here, just outside the orbit of your planet, but our Dome Ship was destroyed during the battle. With no other Andalite forces within range, I landed my fighter on Earth in the hope that I could bring a warning to its people— and a weapon.]

At last I found it. It was a glowing blue cube that seemed to shimmer with faint, swirling light. I picked up the cube and carried it outside.

"So these 'Yeerks' are the invaders?" asked Hermione. "Why are they going to invade our planet?"

[They are not _going_ to invade Earth. They have already begun.]

All of us stared at him in shock.

"They've already begun? But you're the first real alien I've ever heard of—wouldn't somebody have seen one?" I asked. I belatedly realized that I was still holding the cube and gave it to Elfangor. "Is this what you wanted?"

[Yes,] said Elfangor. [The Yeerks conduct their invasion in secret to avoid open combat with humans. The Yeerks are parasites. A war would mean the deaths of millions of potential hosts, which they seek to avoid.]

"This is impossible," Hermione breathed, shaking her head. She was right. It all sounded ludicrous. But since learning about the magical world, there were some days that I heard as many as six ludicrous things before breakfast. Added to the fact that we were talking to what seemed to be a real, living, breathing alien, who spoke in a voice we could hear only in our heads, with such complete sincerity… I couldn't help but believe Elfangor's story.

"What is a Yeerk, exactly?" asked Malfoy. Like Hermione, he looked skeptical. Neville appeared rather disbelieving, too, as if he was worried that this would turn out to be some incredibly convoluted prank we were trying to play on him.

[The Yeerks in their natural state look fairly similar to Earth slugs. They are small, their bodies are weak, and they cannot see. However, they can attach themselves to a host's brain, typically by crawling into the skull cavity through the ear-canal, which allows them to completely take control of the host. Once they have been taken over, we call these hosts 'Controllers'. Because they have access to every part of their host's mind, the Yeerk can flawlessly assume the host's identity—even those closest to the host do not realize that their loved one has been turned into a Controller.]

"How are we supposed to stop them if we don't even know who they are?" I asked.

[The Yeerks have one great weakness: they die if they do not bathe in the liquid from whence their species first originated and absorb the rays of their planet's sun, Kandrona, once every three days. They give the Yeerks the nutrients they need to survive,] Elfangor explained. [They have the technology to replicate Kandrona's radiation but they still need to leave their hosts in order to feed. Therefore, on every host planet, they create several underground bases called Yeerk Pools, where they can feed on the nutrients in the liquid and absorb Kandrona Rays without worry that their hosts will escape.]

"You said that the invasion has already begun," said Hermione. "How many of these Yeerk Pools have they made on Earth?"

[I know of only twenty seven, but before long the Yeerks will build a Pool beneath every large city,] said Elfangor. [One of the Yeerk Pools is not far from here. Your sub-species will be even more desirable than normal humans because of your abilities.]

We all gasped in horror.

"Our sub-species?" Neville asked hesitantly. "You mean… witches and wizards?"

"No," said Malfoy, shaking his head and looking highly agitated. "That's impossible. How would they even know about the wizarding world? And they could never take one of us, anyway. Capturing a Muggle is one thing, but we'd use our magic to stop them."

[That hasn't proven to be true. There are already Controllers among your kind.]

A chill went through me. For the first time I began to understand just how dangerous the Yeerks really were. Anyone could be a Controller. _Anyone._ Were there Controllers at Hogwarts? The other students? The professors? Did I know any of them?

[But we've already spoken too long. My ship was attacked by Yeerk fighters in the upper atmosphere. I managed to lose them, but they will discover where I am at any moment,] said Elfangor. [I came here to warn you, but I also came to give you a gift. Your own natural abilities will help you when you are older, but until then, this will give you the tools you need to resist the Yeerks.]

He held out the cube I brought him earlier.

[This device will give you my people's ability to morph,] said Elfangor. [You will be able to transform into any animal whose DNA you've acquired through touch. With this ability, you may be able to fight the Yeerks long enough for Andalite reinforcements to arrive.]

I nodded. "I'm ready."

"Wait, Potter, we should think about this," Malfoy said.

"Malfoy!"

"Didn't you hear him?" asked Hermione. "Those things, those Yeerks, want to enslave everyone in the world, _including you._ Surely we can't let them win?"

"We have to fight," I said.

"No we don't!" Malfoy said. "Why can't we tell someone about this? With the all of the witches and wizards in the world working together, these Yeerks will be dead within a week."

[It is doubtful that anyone would believe, and the Yeerks would have you made into Controllers in order to keep the secret.]

Neville spoke up, his quiet voice shaking. "I think we should only do this if we all agree."

"Maybe…" Malfoy worried his lip and looked away. "Maybe we can take the morphing ability now, and discuss the rest of it later—when we have more time."

[That is acceptable,] said Elfangor, though his thoughts carried a tone of disappointment and worry.

Glaring at Malfoy, I hissed, "Coward."

He glared right back, but said nothing.

[Each of you touch a side of the device,] said Elfangor. We pressed our hands against the cube, which glowed brighter and brighter with each added palm. Elfangor put his hand on a remaining side. I was almost startled when a pleasant shock shot up my arm, tingling and prickling its way through my body. [Morphing has certain limitations. You cannot morph from one animal to another without first returning to your true form, and you cannot stay in a morph over two Earth hours. If you do, you will become a _nothlit,_ trapped in that morph forever. It is done.]

The tingling sensation had stopped, but I felt no different than I did before touching the device. Looking at my hand, I couldn't see any physical changes either.

[They're coming,] Elfangor said urgently. [Go! Hide where they won't see you. I will do my best to tell you more before the end.]

I looked up at the sky. Once more I saw what looked like shooting stars—and this time there were much more of them.

Elfangor pushed the morphing cube into my hands.

[Take it,] he said. [You can give the power to the allies you find. Above all, you must never let the device fall into the Yeerks' possession.]

I nodded solemnly. "I won't."

I turned around and nudged Hermione and Neville, who were still staring, frozen, at the growing lights above. We rushed to the edge of the gully and started to climb. Malfoy and I hid behind one tree while Hermione and Neville hid behind another. As we found our hiding places, Elfangor used the blade on his tail to kick up dirt and cover our footprints.

The lights grew larger and larger until I could see the ships themselves. There were two smaller ones and a larger third. The smaller ones were black and almond-shaped with a long, serrated spear jutting forward from the tip of each wing. They somewhat resembled giant beetles, while the third ship looked sort of like a giant flying battle-ax. The broad 'blades' of the ax seemed to be the wings, with the long 'handle' shaped bridge in front.

The two beetle-like ships hovered in the air, while the ax-like ship landed nearby, effortlessly crushing the trees in its way. A group of strange creatures emerged. They appeared to be about seven feet tall, with falcon-like beaks, long necks, long legs with knees that bent backwards, and clawed, dinosaur-like feet. They were dark green and covered in large, vicious-looking blades which grew from their wrists, elbows, knees, and foreheads. Their tails were covered in spikes. I thought they sort of looked like dragons that had partially transformed into people.

[Hork-Bajir,] Elfangor told us. [The Yeerks use Hork-Bajir Controllers as shock-troops, for obvious reasons.]

Still more creatures emerged from the ship, in fewer numbers than the Hork-Bajir. These looked more like giant, swollen centipedes. They were about ten feet in length, with the front third or so of their bodies carried upright. They had many pairs of crab-like legs that moved rhythmically in waves, allowing them to move very quickly. Each of the creatures had a circular lamprey-mouth lined with hundred of teeth protruding between four bulbous red eyes that looked like globs of jelly.

[Taxxons,] said Elfangor. [Cursed with endless hunger, they traded their freedom for new sources of meat to consume.]

Then the last creature emerged—and to our shock, it was a creature whose appearance we now knew well.

[That is Visser Three,] said Elfangor, his voice now full of disgust and hatred. [The only Yeerk to have taken an Andalite host. Abomination.]

It occurred to me that Elfangor was able to speak to us in our minds without being heard by anyone else, because the Andalite Controller had no reaction to what Elfangor said. He signaled the Hork-Bajir and Taxxons to form a perimeter around Elfangor and his ship. The Andalite Controller sent one of the Hork-Bajir inside the crashed ship. My grip tightened around the morphing cube.

After a few moments, the Hork-Bajir emerged empty-handed. The Andalite Controller turned to Elfangor.

[Where is the Escafil Device?] he demanded. His thoughts were cold and cruel, chilling to the bone.

[I destroyed it, Abomination,] said Elfangor. [Your kind will never have morphing technology.]

[Does it trouble you, Elfangor, knowing that you die for nothing?] Visser Three taunted. [The Earth will soon be ours. We thought the humans' numbers made them a valuable target, but when we discovered the _magus_ subspecies… Can you imagine it? With an army of these human reality-warpers under our control, we'll take the Andalite home-world within a year.]

[I die knowing that my people will defeat the Yeerks and destroy you once and for all,] said Elfangor.

[Andalite filth!] Visser Three snarled. He began to grow and change shape. I had expected morphing to be like transfiguration, but this was far slower and much harder to watch. Bones shifted awkwardly, changes came about asymmetrically, and there seemed to be no sense or logic behind the transformation.

After a moment, standing in the Andalite Controller's place was a huge, hulking monster. It stood on two legs, and it had an impossibly bloated head with teeth that were easily as long as my whole arm.

The monster lifted Elfangor off the ground with one of its thick tentacle arms. Elfangor slashed desperately with his tail-blade, but to no avail. The creature opened its gigantic maw and as we watched, horror-stricken, it devoured Elfangor in a single bite.

I felt like I was going to throw up. Malfoy muffled a scream into his hands. All I could see were glimpses of the others' faces as we ran terrified through the forest. The last things I remember of that night were lights flashing in the darkness behind us and the ground rumbling beneath my feet.


	3. Chapter 3

So much for my posting schedule, eh?

Anyway, I am _very_ sorry this took so long. I took a week off because I was distracted by other projects (which may or may not appear on at some point in the distant future), then I ended up needing to completely re-write a large portion of this chapter and said "screw this I'm playing video games" because I'm really lazy. But I finally got it done. I'm not entirely happy with it and think it's sort of choppy in the middle, but I decided to just post it and get it over with.

As always, comments are very welcome and constructive criticism is appreciated, even if I grumble about it.

* * *

**Chapter Three**

"Harry? Harry, wake up…"

After a moment of panic, the darkness of the forest gave way to brilliant sunlight shining through the windows of the Gryffindor tower dormitories. I blinked blearily up at the curtains around my four-poster bed and the face poking in between them. It was my best friend, Ron, the first friend my age that I ever had in my life.

"I was going to go to breakfast," he said. "But if you want to have a lie-in that's alright. You must have gotten back really late last night, you look knackered."

I rubbed my eyes, ignoring the soreness that shot through them. "No, I'm awake. But you go ahead, I'll be down in a minute."

Feeling grimy and dirty, I decided to take a shower before going down to breakfast. I guessed that I had fallen into bed the moment I got back from detention. I was covered in dirt and twigs and still wearing the same clothes from yesterday.

I passed by Neville's bed on the way to the showers and saw him still deep in sleep, breathing heavily. He wasn't the only one still in bed, judging from the snores coming from behind the curtains of Seamus Finnegan's four-poster. It was Saturday morning, after all. Without classes to go to, many Gryffindors liked to take the opportunity to sleep in.

Pausing in the doorway, I glanced back at Neville and started to remember… but it had to have been a dream—or more like a nightmare. Spaceships and aliens in the Forbidden Forest? The very idea was completely ridiculous. So I tried to forget about it as I showered. But it had felt so real…

I blocked it out of my mind and tried to think about what I should do that day. Now that the detention was out of the way, I could focus on the next big event: we would be taking our final exams in a few days. Hermione, Ron and I had been studying for it for the past week or so, but I supposed we could keep studying for a few more days just to be sure we were prepared.

Then again, I wouldn't mind a bit of flying before studying. Ever since we lost all those house points from the dragon caper, Quidditch practice hadn't exactly been easy. It would be nice to get out and practice a bit on my own without my teammates giving me dirty looks.

Quidditch is the biggest sport in the wizarding world, like football in the Muggle world. It's played on flying broomsticks, the rules are complicated, and it can be very dangerous for the players. That I was the only first year allowed on any of the teams and played in one of the most critical positions made it even more dangerous for me at times, so I needed to keep my skills sharp even though the season was over.

Having finished my shower and decided upon my plans for the day, I got dressed and went down to the Great Hall for breakfast. I sat next to Ron at Gryffindor table and began dishing up my plate.

"I was thinking about getting in some Quidditch practice this morning," I told him. "Want to play a few games?"

"Good idea, I've had enough studying for several lifetimes," said Ron. "Hey, maybe we can get Seamus and Dean to play, too."

"I don't know," I said. "Are you sure they're not still angry with me?"

"No, I think everyone's starting to get over it," said Ron. "They're just points, really, and there's always next year."

"I'm glad some people are starting to forgive us," I said. "I have enough problems with the Quidditch team alone."

"Don't worry, this will all blow over before you know it."

Heartened by the good news, I gratefully began to eat.

"Good morning Ron, Harry." It was Percy, Ron's older brother. He looks a lot like Ron, tall and lanky with wavy red hair, blue eyes, and freckles, except Percy wears glasses. Beyond physical appearance, the only things they have in common are that they both like chess and tend to be the target of most of the twins' pranks. Ron has five older brothers—Bill, Charlie, Percy, and the twins, Fred and George—and one younger sister, Ginny. Ron thinks I'm mental, but I can't help but envy him for having such a big family.

"Morning," Ron and I mumbled together.

"So, Harry," said Percy, "I understand you had a detention last night, but do you suppose you'll be able to make it to next week's Circle meeting? There's going to be a party to celebrate the end of exams."

The Hogwarts United Circle, also known as the HUC or simply the Circle, was a group that arranged extra-curricular activities like the chess club, as well as organizing games for sports that weren't as popular as Quidditch but still had students who were interested in playing them, such as Aingingein, Quodpot, and Stuntbumps, and even Muggle games like football and cricket.

The main focus of the Circle was a group of smaller, more specialized "circles" meant to help different students according to their needs. Hermione for example, in addition to leading a first year study group, was part of the Muggleborn Circle which counseled its members on the issues they faced because of their Muggle heritage. Each circle met on different days of the week, but all of the circles came together on Friday nights for one big meeting where they discussed any important news—and of course threw parties and game-days.

I'd gone to a few meetings of a circle for students who had lost close family members. The meetings made me a little too uncomfortable so I hadn't gone for long, but ever since then I was welcome to the big Friday night Circle meetings, which were usually pretty fun.

"Okay, I'll be there if nothing comes up," I said. "Thanks, Percy."

"You're welcome, Harry," said Percy. He paused to tell Ron that he had been challenged to a chess game by a first-year from Ravenclaw house before leaving the Great Hall.

"You didn't miss a whole lot last night," said Ron. He went on to tell me what had happened, but I wasn't really listening because the mail had arrived. In the wizarding world, we use our pet owls to deliver mail, and I had just spotted my snowy owl, Hedwig, flying my way with a letter.

I took the letter from Hedwig and let her have a bit of my breakfast as a treat. I opened the letter to read:

_Harry,_

_I wanted to apologize for getting you and Hermione in trouble and leaving you while we were in the forest. But where did you go? I couldn't find you when I came back to the spot I left you. Would you come to the hut for tea this afternoon? You can bring Neville along as well._

_Sorry, Hagrid_

I frowned. So being left behind by Hagrid and then wandering away from where he left us actually happened? I hadn't dreamed that part?

But I must have dreamed everything else… right?

I flipped the parchment over to write a reply on the back and reached into my robe pocket, hoping to find a quill. But that was not what I found. I could distinctly feel a four-by-four-by-four inch cube in my pocket.

A cold chill ran up my spine and I went very still.

"Harry?" asked Ron. "Are you alright? You look a bit sick…"

I gave him a weak smile, trying not to show my growing alarm. "No, I'm alright. I guess I'm just a bit more tired than I thought. Maybe we shouldn't have that pick-up game after all."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah," I said.

"Alright then," Ron said with a shrug. "We'll move it to tomorrow then."

"Yeah, that sounds good," I said distractedly. Ron turned his attention to his breakfast. I looked around, making sure that no one was walking nearby.

When I carefully peeked down into my robe pocket, I saw the morphing cube—blue and shimmering and looking exactly like it did the night before.

It was real. It hadn't been a dream. The cube was real.

That meant Elfangor was real.

That meant the Yeerks…

I started to feel dizzy and held onto my seat until the moment passed. It was real…

_Well, then, that's that,_ I thought. An odd sense of calm passed over me. My fear faded away. Not entirely, of course—the fear was still there, but I couldn't let it get in the way. I knew what I had to do. It seemed like the only, obvious choice. I had to fight the Yeerks. And if I had the chance, I would destroy Visser Three for what he'd done to Elfangor.

To think that only a few minutes ago I believed my biggest problems were Quidditch, school exams and house points.

But first I had to get the others together so we could decide what to do about the Yeerks and, hopefully, figure out how to use the ability Elfangor had given us. Neville was probably still asleep in the dormitories and Hermione wasn't in the Great Hall either. I guessed that she was most likely either in Gryffindor tower or the library

I looked across the hall to the Slytherin table. Malfoy was there, picking half-heartedly at his food and ignoring his housemates as they passed around the package of sweets his mother had sent him in the mail. I was surprised to see just how terrible he looked. He was even paler than usual, his eyes tired and expression crestfallen. It didn't help that he still had the gash on his forehead from the previous night, a little less an inch long and surrounded by a purplish-green bruise.

As if he sensed he was being watched, Malfoy glanced up and met my eyes but quickly looked away when he realized who it was. His gaze happened to fall on his pet eagle owl. Slowly, his expression changed from nervousness to fearful curiosity. He glanced up at me again, then back at the owl.

I watched, fascinated, as he reached out to pet the owl's head and attempted to acquire it.

At first nothing seemed to happen. Then the owl's eyes closed and it wobbled a little on its feet as if it were beginning to fall asleep. Malfoy's eyes went wide and he snapped his hand back as if he'd been burned. He did it, I realized; Malfoy had 'acquired' his owl's DNA through touch, just like Elfangor said.

Hedwig was still perched on the table in front of me, peering serenely around the Great Hall. I scratched the feathers on top of her head. She pressed into my fingers almost like a cat eager to be petted. I had no idea how to acquire her, but like the first time I flew on a broomstick, I did what felt right. I focused on Hedwig and imagined a part of her becoming part of me.

After a second, Hedwig's eyes closed and she slumped forward slightly, wings drooping. I was acquiring her! I looked up, hoping to find some way to communicate what was going on to Malfoy—but he wasn't looking at me anymore. He was looking at the high table.

It was obvious who he was looking for, but Professor Snape, the Slytherin Head of House and Malfoy's favorite teacher, wasn't there. So when Malfoy got up and began to leave the Great Hall, I knew exactly where Malfoy would go.

I leapt out of my seat and rushed after him. I caught a glimpse of Hedwig as I turned to give Ron a quick excuse for my hasty departure. Hedwig had completely shaken off her stupor after only a few seconds and was already back to normal. Once out of the Great Hall and away from anyone that might get suspicious, I began to run. I managed to catch Malfoy at the top of the stairs that lead down to the dungeons.

"Malfoy, wait!"

"Unhand me, Potter!" Malfoy snapped, trying to jerk his arm out of my grip.

"You can't tell Snape," I said urgently. "You can't tell anyone."

"I can do whatever I please, now let go before I curse you!" Malfoy sneered. "I'd use a Hair-Raising Hex, but clearly someone else beat me to it."

I rolled my eyes.

"Harry?" Hermione and Neville were running down the grand staircase. One look at them and I knew that they had remembered what happened the night before. "Harry, what—"

"Not here," I said, shaking my head. "Come on."

I led Hermione and Neville out of the entrance hall and down the first floor corridor to a disused classroom, Malfoy reluctantly following us with a scowl on his face. I glanced around the room to make sure that no one was inside, but judging by the dirty windows that blocked most of the late morning sunlight and the towers of dusty old desks stacked against the walls, it was clear that the place had been unoccupied for far longer than we'd been at Hogwarts. Once everyone was inside, I shut the door

"Harry," Hermione began hesitantly. "What we saw… I know that there must be a logical explanation for everything that happened last night."

I reached into my pocket and pulled out the morphing cube, which glowed faintly in the dim light of the classroom. Hermione let out a gasp. "It's real," I said. "Ask Malfoy, we've both acquired owls already."

"How can you be sure?" Hermione asked. She glanced at Malfoy, who crossed his arms defensively over his chest.

"It's hard to explain," I said. "You'll see when you try to acquire something."

Hermione sighed and shook her head. "Harry, this is just…"

"Insane, I know," I said. "Just like learning about magic for the first time, right? If magic and wizards and dragons and everything else can be real, why not this?"

Hermione frowned, but she seemed to be considering my words. "May I?" she asked after a moment. She took the cube and started examining it. I was glad to hand it over. If we were going to use it, then we probably had to figure out how it worked—and if anyone could do that, I knew it was Hermione.

Neville watched as Hermione began turning it over and over in her hands so that she could look at every angle. "It _was_ real, wasn't it?" he said faintly. "He was real… he really killed…"

He trailed off, but all of us knew who he was talking about. We stood for a moment in subdued silence. To my surprise, Neville didn't cry. He just seemed kind of overwhelmed and unsure of how to feel. I suppose we all kind of felt the same. We had only known Elfangor a few moments, but he changed our lives. I couldn't stop thinking about that picture I found in Elfangor's ship, and how his family would never see him again.

When I was a baby, a very evil man named Voldemort murdered my parents. Though I survived by some unknown, apparently miraculous means, I had to grow up without a father. Now, thanks to Visser Three, so would Elfangor's children.

"He gave us the morphing ability for a reason," I said finally. "The Yeerks are out there, taking people over. We have to stop them."

"If there really is an invasion, we should tell someone," said Hermione. "The professors, or the Minister of Magic."

"Don't you remember what Elfangor said?" I asked. "Anyone could be a Yeerk. _Anyone. _Right now, we can only trust each other."

Very quickly, Hermione's gaze darted to Malfoy and back again.

"What?" Malfoy snapped. "Go ahead and say it, Granger. We can only trust each other—except Malfoy, right?"

"That wasn't what—"

"Of course it was," Malfoy sneered. He rolled his eyes. "At any rate, it's not as though I _want_ to be part of Scarhead Potter's secret fan-club, anyway."

"This isn't a game, Malfoy," I said angrily.

"Oh, no, I'm aware of that," Malfoy said with a crooked half-smile. "In fact, I seem to be the only one who remembers what, exactly, happened to Elfangor. He didn't just _die,_ that other Andalite—"

"That was one of the Yeerks," Hermione corrected him. "He just has an Andalite host."

"It doesn't matter!" Malfoy shouted. "The Abomination, then! He turned into a monster and _ate _Elfangor! While he was still alive, I might add. What's to stop him from doing that to us?"

"What's to stop him from taking over the Earth if not us?" I challenged. "But if you're too much of a coward, then go ahead and leave. We don't need you."

"Yes we do," Neville said quietly.

"What?" Malfoy and I said together, him stunned and me still angry. Neville flinched.

"He's right," Hermione said. "Like you said, we can only trust each other right now—and right now, there are only four of us. Four first years against an entire army. We shouldn't make those odds any worse."

"I still think what I thought last night," Neville said. "We should only do this if everyone agrees. But I'm with you, Harry."

"You know, just because you lick Potter's boots and follow him around like some kind of dog doesn't mean that he's going to be your friend," Malfoy sneered.

"Leave him alone!" said Hermione. "Neville's making this choice for the same reason we are, because it's the right thing to do."

"So what is it going to be?" I challenged. "It's all or none of us."

Malfoy's eyes widened and his gaze flickered between the three us. "Why do I have to decide?"

"Because you're the only one who doesn't think we should do this," I said. "Do we fight, or do we let the Yeerks win?"

"I…" He started looking all around the room as if searching for some kind of sign. "I don't know—"

"It won't take long to find more people to help us," Hermione said in a placating voice. "If you like, you can quit once we have someone to replace you."

After a moment, Malfoy's sights settled on me. I wasn't sure why. I wasn't even sure we really needed him. Then again, he'd probably be more useful in a fight than Hermione or Neville. Even if he could be an idiot sometimes, at least he was a scrappy idiot. Neville might burst into tears if a Yeerk aimed a ray-gun or something at him, and Hermione's combat experience was probably limited to reading about a fight in a book once.

Swallowing my pride, I nodded.

"Alright," Malfoy said at last, nervously rubbing his pale hands together. "If you insist... then I suppose I'll stay on a while. And provide a much-needed voice of _sanity_, apparently."

I turned to face the others. "Now that that's out of the way, maybe we should figure out how to morph?"

"But Neville and I haven't acquired anything yet," said Hermione.

"It's easy," I said. "We'll teach you."

"What was it like?" asked Neville.

"…Strange," said Malfoy.

"It isn't bad," I said quickly. "I didn't even really feel anything. Hedwig just got really sleepy all of a sudden."

"It didn't hurt her at all?" Hermione asked fretfully.

"No," I said. "She shook it off right afterwards."

"Then maybe Neville and I should acquire some owls, too," said Hermione. "If it really doesn't bother them… I don't have an owl, but I suppose it wouldn't hurt anyone if I acquired theirs."

"Let's go to the owlery, then," I said. "The owls will have finished delivering mail by now."

"We should hide this before we go," said Hermione, holding up the morphing cube. "You remember what Elfangor told you, Harry. We have to keep it somewhere safe."

"I'll lock it in my trunk until we find something better," I said. "Meet you at the owlery."

* * *

The owlery is a stone tower branching off of the main west tower of Hogwarts Castle. It's usually cold and drafty because none of the windows have glass in them, and the straw-strewn floor is a hazardous obstacle course of owl-pellets and slippery droppings. All of the students' owls live in the owlery during the school year, several hundred total in every breed imaginable. Each of the owls have a hollowed out perch in the wall to call home, and most of them were either going to sleep after the morning's deliveries or flying outside to hunt.

I climbed up a short set of stone steps from the castle's southwest courtyard to enter the owlery, where I found Hermione, Neville, and Malfoy grouped together on one of the catwalks, whispering to each other about something I couldn't hear.

"Did you have any problems?" Hermione asked when I arrived.

"No," I said. "Have you acquired your owls yet?"

"We decided to wait for you," said Hermione.

We followed Neville as he searched for his owl, which he found near the top of the tower. Hedwig was up there, too. She hooted at me in greeting.

"Hello, Diana," Neville said to the barn owl. He gently stroked the feathers on her neck. "Harry, how do I…?"

"You're doing most of it already," I said. "You just have to concentrate. I guess your body does the rest."

Neville stared intently at his owl. After a moment, her eyes fell shut and she leaned into Neville's hand.

"I'm doing it!" Neville exclaimed excitedly. I couldn't blame him. He usually had trouble even casting simple magic spells. Accomplishing something like this so easily must have been new for him.

Malfoy smirked. "Amazing, Longbottom, you managed to do something right for once."

Hermione and I glared at him.

"What?" Malfoy asked. "Everyone was thinking it."

"It's okay," Neville said with a sheepish smile. "I was thinking it, too. How do I know it's over? She's starting to wake up again."

"It only takes a second or two," I said. "You should be done."

Hermione looked at perches nearby for an owl to acquire. She eventually decided on a tawny owl, which she acquired without any trouble.

"So, how do we start morphing?" she wondered, rubbing her fingers together. "Do you suppose it's anything like transfiguration? If it is, the most important thing may be to visualize what you want to transform into—in this case, our owl morphs."

"Well, the owlery's empty if anyone wants to take a crack at it," Malfoy said after checking the area.

"I'll try it first," I said. "In case something goes wrong…"

Neville's eyes widened, but Hermione only nodded tightly and waited. Malfoy stared at me with a startling intensity.

I closed my eyes and blocked everything else out. Hedwig, I had to think of Hedwig. I thought of the pattern of her feathers, the way she moved, the way she flew, the bright yellow of her eyes…

I heard Neville gasp and opened my eyes.

"Oh God," Malfoy mumbled, turning away with a grimace.

"What?" I asked. Or _tried_ to ask, anyway. What actually came out was a raspy shriek.

I suddenly realized that I was getting shorter. I looked down at my body and immediately wished I hadn't. Morphing definitely isn't a pretty process. At first I thought that my whole body was shrinking, but it was actually just my legs getting shorter and stumpier. My trousers gradually became even baggier than my fat cousin Dudley's hand-me-downs. I could feel my feet shrinking inside my shoes.

Then my arms started to change. They were also growing shorter, though the fingers were getting longer. They all started melting together into one long, fleshy digit. It was absolutely disgusting, but I couldn't look away. My chest suddenly swelled until I looked like some kind of muscle-bound body-builder. I was worried for a moment that the buttons of my shirt would start to pop off, but then the rest of me caught up with my legs and started to shrink.

Morphing sounds like a horribly painful process, but all I could feel of it was an odd numbness, sort of like when your foot falls asleep. I could feel things like the itchiness of feathers sprouting all over my body, and I was distantly aware of my bones and joints shifting around, but none of it hurt.

My clothes billowed up around me, so I couldn't see the rest of the change. Whether this was a bad thing or a good thing is up for debate.

Finally, the transformation was over and I had to get out of this thing, I couldn't fly, I couldn't get away, I was trapped—what was going on? Why was this happening?—I had to get out!

I searched desperately for an escape route. There was an opening in the trap that had snared me, and I struggled awkwardly to wriggle my way through.

Free! I was free! But there were humans around me—

"Harry?"

_Harry? Who was… I… _I blinked, and suddenly I was me again.

"This is amazing!" exclaimed Hermione. "You look exactly like Hedwig!"

I glanced over at Hedwig—I had to turn my whole head because my eyes couldn't move, but my eyesight was so powerful that I could clearly see individual cracks and specks in the stone walls all the way across the room—to find her staring at me with wide, startled eyes. I suppose it would be strange, seeing an exact copy of yourself standing where someone else had been a moment ago.

Returning my attention to the others, I wondered if there was any way I could communicate with them.

"Hello," I tried to say. What came out of my mouth was a soft hoot.

"Are you trying to say something, Harry?" asked Hermione.

[There has to be another way to do this,] I thought.

The others jumped. "You just spoke in our heads!" exclaimed Hermione.

"Like Elfangor…" Neville said wistfully.

[Can you hear this?] I said.

"We heard you the first time, didn't we?" said Malfoy.

[Okay, so if I project a thought at you, you can hear it,] I said. [That's good.]

"That's _good?"_ echoed Hermione. "We'll be able to communicate with each other while in morph—this is wonderful!"

"Why didn't his clothes transform with him?" asked Malfoy, nudging my shed clothing with the toe of his black leather shoe. "I thought that was what happened when you turned into an animal."

"That's what happens when you use magic to transform into an animal," Hermione corrected him. "We don't know how morphing works. They might not have thought clothing was an issue when they invented it. The Andalites don't wear clothes, after all."

"So does that mean, every time we morph…" Neville blushed.

[Uh-oh.]

Malfoy rolled his eyes. "So we'll be naked when we have to morph. What's the problem?"

[It'd be one thing if we were all boys, but…]

"Then we just won't look at each other," Malfoy said with a shrug. "I don't know about you, but I'm never going to watch anyone morph ever again."

"Okay, we'll just do that. And we won't be seen naked by anyone else because we don't want to be seen morphing, and that's the only time we'll be naked," Hermione said, blushing furiously. "That's it then. No problem."

After a very embarrassing discussion, we decided that Hermione and Neville would morph while wearing their clothes and then crawl out of them with Malfoy's help. After that, Malfoy, who didn't seem to care as much about nudity, would undress and hide all of our clothes and wands somewhere safe before morphing last. I waddled over to the edge of the platform and looked down so I could see the entrance and warn the others in case anyone entered the owlery.

[I forgot to mention,] I told them. [When I finished morphing, I had this strange feeling that I was really an owl.]

"What do you mean?" asked Hermione. She and Neville were removing their ties, shoes, socks, and cloaks so that it would be easier to get out of their clothes once they morphed.

[I don't know, it… it was like I forgot who I was for a moment,] I said. [I actually thought I was an owl.]

"That's strange," said Hermione. "What was it like?"

[Mostly panicked because I couldn't get out of my clothes,] I said. [It felt like I was trapped.]

"That almost sounds like the owl took control of you for a moment," said Hermione. "The owl's instincts must still be there, in the DNA you acquired."

"What is DNA, anyway?" asked Malfoy.

"It's a nucleic acid that contains—"

[She'll explain it to you later,] I said.

"Oh," Malfoy said with a frown. "Muggle stuff."

"Every known life-form has DNA, which means you do, too. It's obviously not just 'Muggle stuff'," Hermione said with an annoyed frown. "Anyway, we'll have to be careful to stay in control when we morph."

[It isn't hard, I think being trapped like that was what set it off,] I said. [Just keep your heads free and I think you'll be alright.]

Malfoy and I turned away, giving the others privacy as they morphed. For several seconds neither of us said anything. Then out of nowhere, Malfoy suddenly asked, "How do you suppose he knew that we weren't Controllers?"

[Who?]

"Elfangor," Malfoy explained. He had an odd, pensive look on his face. "What if one of us had been a Controller? Then a Yeerk—a Yeerk other that Abomination thing, I mean—would be able to morph, and they'd know who we are. Then they'd make the rest of us into Controllers, too."

[Why does it matter?] I asked. I narrowed my eyes at him. [Wait… do you think one of us is a Controller?]

"No, no, I'm only thinking aloud," said Malfoy. "I mean, how did Elfangor he know he could trust us?"

[I… I suppose he didn't really have a choice,] I said. [He was injured, alone, on an unfamiliar planet. It's just lucky we were there and not some Controllers.]

Or nobody at all, I realized. What if _nobody_ had found Elfangor before Visser Three showed up? Then no one on Earth would know about the Yeerks. The Yeerks might have even gotten their hands on the morphing cube. Humanity's only chance at salvation would be over before it even began…

"Hm. A little too lucky if you ask me," Malfoy said quietly.

[What do you mean?] I asked.

[Malfoy, I'm finished,] Neville said, drawing Malfoy away before I could get an answer out of him. Malfoy pulled Neville free of his robes, then helped Hermione when she finished a few moments later.

A barn owl and a tawny owl waddled up next to me.

[This is fascinating!] said Hermione. [My sense of hearing is so powerful! I can even hear students talking in the school!]

She leaned over the edge of the platform, peering down to the bottom of the owlery.

[And my eyesight! I can see the individual bones in that owl pellet down there,] she said. [They look like mouse bones, I think.]

"That's disgusting," Malfoy said from somewhere behind us as he got undressed. "Can I opt not to hear Granger's thoughts, please?"

[It _was_ a little too much information, Hermione,] I admitted.

Though I didn't look, I could clearly hear Malfoy gather up everyone's clothes and wands and slide them under the gate that closed off the section of the owlery reserved for the professors' owls. No student would see them there, and hopefully we would be back before any professors came around.

As Malfoy started to morph, I thought about what he'd said about not wanting to hear Hermione's thoughts. That made me remember how Elfangor had seemed able to choose who could hear his thoughts and who couldn't.

Curious, I focused on Neville. [Can you hear me?]

Neville turned his head to look at me. [Yes? Is something wrong?]

[Er… Neville, who are you talking to?] asked Hermione. [No one said anything.]

[I did. I was trying to see if I could direct my thoughts to just one person,] I explained.

[Oh? How interesting,] said Hermione. She tilted her head curiously to the side, which looked particularly amusing in her owl form.

We continued to practice this for a moment, until Malfoy finally said, [I've finished. You really weren't exaggerating about the owl's senses, were you?]

Hermione, Neville and I turned around. For a moment I was actually intimidated, until I came to my senses and laughed at myself. Could you blame me, though? Malfoy's eagle owl morph looked positively gigantic compared to the rest of us. Even the tufted ears seemed to add to the effect, looking like devil horns sweeping up from wide hellfire-orange eyes.

Malfoy took a few steps forward and looked us over, taking in the great size difference between us and him. He laughed. [I could get used to this.]


	4. Chapter 4

The other day I gave in to the urge to buy a set of Animorphs books. I haven't read them since I donated my original collection to my school's library, so I'm pretty excited to relive some nostalgic Animorphs feels (at some point; the delivery estimate was hilariously vague). It'll be cool to see how well they hold up after all this time.

As usual, please leave a comment and let me know what you think. If you notice something that seems odd or that I've made a mistake, feel free to tell me. I don't have a Beta, so it really does help to have someone else point out problems I haven't noticed. Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoy :)

* * *

**Chapter Four**

**T**here was still one important thing that we hadn't done in our morphs.

Malfoy spread his huge wings and gave them an experimental flap. [So, how are we going to do this?]

[Well, it can't be any harder than flying a broomstick, right?] asked Harry. [It's basically the same thing.]

[What on earth are you talking about?] exclaimed Hermione. Her owl morph let out a shrill shriek of alarm. [They couldn't be more different! The aerodynamics alone—]

[Don't bother, Granger,] said Malfoy. [Something tells me that Potter isn't interested in silly little things like facts or logic.]

[Come on, you know what I'm talking about, Malfoy,] I said. [You've flown before.]

[Loathe as I am to agree with Granger, I do think there might be a difference between flying on broomsticks and flying on our own wings, Potter.]

[The only way we'll learn is by trying,] I said. [Birds don't learn about aerodynamics before learning how to fly after all. They learn by doing.]

[I… ] Malfoy's eyes narrowed and his feather 'horns' smoothed back against his head. [Alright, you might have a point.]

[We're actually going to fly?] Neville asked hesitantly.

[We did acquire owls for a reason, Longbottom,] Malfoy said. [It would be safe to assume that we might use them to fly at some point.]

I couldn't blame Neville for being nervous. Neville had lost control of his broomstick and broke his wrist during our first flying lesson at the beginning of the year, giving him an understandable fear of heights.

[The first thing we should do is try to fly up to that window,] I said. I opened my wings and spread them wide. [All it should take is some flapping, right?]

I experimented with the wings, learning which muscles controlled them. They seemed to move more-or-less like my own arms. My confidence grew. I could do this. I had seen Hedwig fly hundreds of times, so I'd just do what she did. Crouching down, I tensed my muscles for the take-off.

I gave a powerful flap of my wings and shot up into the air. I flapped desperately to stop falling and found myself lurching forward through the owlery. I was doing it! I was doing it!

I swooped towards the window, my heart pounding with excitement. I could see blue sky, the mountains in the distance—I could fly there, I could fly anywhere, this was easy!

WHAM!

I crashed face-first into the wall beneath the window. The world spun wildly around me as I tumbled to the floor of the catwalk in a heap. As my vision oriented itself, I assessed the damage. Though I wasn't physically injured, my pride was another issue entirely. It didn't help that Malfoy was laughing so hard that he'd literally fallen over in hysterics.

[Harry! Are you alright?] Neville asked anxiously.

[I told you, didn't I?] Hermione said. [Please tell me you haven't hurt yourself?]

[I'm alright,] I grumbled, trying to put myself right-side up. [Oh shut up, Malfoy.]

[I can't breathe!] exclaimed Malfoy, who was now rolling on the floor. His owl morph hooted and shrieked with delight. [Did you see that? 'Oh, this will be just like flying a broomstick, I'll have no trouble at all'—SPLAT! That could not have been more perfect!]

[Let's see you do it, then!] I challenged. [If you can even stop laughing long enough to stand.]

[Alright, then I will,] Malfoy said. He rolled onto his belly and stood up on his talons. [Though I don't know how I could _possibly_ outdo your graceful performance.]

[Go on then,] I said angrily.

He crouched down like I had, but he closed his eyes for a long moment, as if waiting or listening for something. His eyes opened and he spent another several seconds simply staring at the window ahead.

Suddenly, he hopped into the air and started flapping his wings. He flew easily across the room.

[See, this is simple, I—ah!]

He was about to land on the ledge when his wings, the span of which were over a meter and a half wide, struck the edges of the window and folded back against his body. Without his wings to slow him down, he sailed right over the ledge and out of sight on the other side.

[Malfoy!]

What had I done? Maybe this wouldn't have happened if I hadn't challenged him, why had I done it? Could he survive the fall? Or would we find his crumpled body at the base of the tower? I couldn't believe—

An eagle owl flew back into the owlery, this time tucking in its wings as it passed through the window. Malfoy was whooping excitedly in thought-speech while his owl form hooted out loud. He swooped down to land next to us. [That was amazing! Did you see me? I am the master of—ah!]

I was hitting him over and over with my wings. [You _idiot!]_

[There's no need to be so jealous of my skill, Potter,] Malfoy said. [When I started falling my mind just went blank, but the owl took over. The owl knows how to fly, and it's still there, in the back of my head. It's like Granger said, the owl's instincts are still there.]

I paused to think for a bit, and found that Malfoy was right. I could indeed sense Hedwig's presence lingering beneath my own. The ability to fly was there, as well as how to hunt and a lot of other skills, though I didn't think I would have to use those.

[Now, if any of you would care to join me,] Malfoy said, before taking off and easily flying outside.

I focused on the instincts without letting them take me over completely. It seemed so simple now—of course that was how it was done, obviously I had to tilt my wings like this, clearly I had to spread my tail-feathers like that…

I leapt up into the air and sailed out through the window.

The feeling… it was like nothing I'd experienced before. Not even flying on a broomstick had anything to compare with the way the muscles on my chest and back strained, with the feeling of wind blowing through the feathers all over my body. The constant threat of danger and the sheer freedom of flying with only the air to hold me combined into a heady rush.

Beneath me was a world I knew but had never seen like this, with an owl's sharp eyes. I could see every individual blade of grass on the ground that was rapidly falling away from me. I could see fish jumping in the lake from over a thousand feet away. Through the windows of the school I could see other students going about their day, completely unaware of who and what I really was.

I spotted Malfoy not far away and flew towards him. The owl's instincts told me to hold my wings outstretched, so I glided easily over the warm air rising from the castle roof.

[So, what do you think?] Malfoy asked as we circled around each other.

[This is incredible,] I gasped.

[Not so much like flying on a broom as you thought, eh Potter?] Malfoy said with a laugh.

[No, not quite,] I admitted. [I don't think I can play Quidditch as an owl, though.]

[To think this is what Quilly gets to do all day while I'm stuck in class,] said Malfoy. [It's too bad this morphing thing doesn't go both ways. I certainly wouldn't mind trading places with her every once and a while.]

[Quilly?]

[Er… I meant Aquila. My owl's name is Aquila.]

[I wouldn't have expected you to have a nickname for your owl, Malfoy. Cute.]

[Shut up,] said Malfoy. He swooped away towards the north tower. I chased after him a second later. We made a tight loop around the tower, flying so close to the castle that our wing-tips almost brushed the curved stone wall, before heading back to the owlery. Hermione was perched on the roof, so we landed on either side of her.

[How did you do?] I asked.

[Well enough, I suppose,] said Hermione. [Not as good as you and Malfoy, though.]

[Well aren't you a flatterer,] Malfoy said. [Keep it up, it makes you much more likable.]

[What about Neville?] I asked, ignoring Malfoy's rudeness.

[Well…] Hermione leaned over the edge of the roof and peered down. Neville was perched in the window below.

[Neville?] I asked. [What's wrong?]

[Oh, nothing,] said Neville. [You know, I'm no good at flying. Maybe I should just watch you three from here. It'll be okay, I don't mind.]

Malfoy somehow managed to sigh in thought-speak. [Honestly, Longbottom, are you an owl or a chicken?]

[Um… neither?]

[It's easy, Neville,] I said. [You'll do just fine, I know it.]

[I'll take care of this,] said Malfoy. He took off, soaring around the owlery.

[What are you going to do?] Hermione demanded in a warning tone.

[Just watch, trust me,] Malfoy said. He flew out of sight.

Hermione and I exchanged confused looks.

[What do you suppose he—]

[LOOK OUT LONGBOTTOM I'M COMING THROUGH!]

[Wait, Malfoy! Don't—] Neville screamed and leapt out of the window to avoid Malfoy, who shot after him with an evil cackle. Thankfully, rather than tumbling to the ground below, Neville seemed to get the hang of flying after a few seconds of panic. Malfoy led him away on a practice lap around the castle, giving him pointers on his technique.

Now that Hermione and I were alone, it seemed she had been waiting for an opportunity to say something. [How are you handling this?]

[What?] I asked.

[All of this,] she said. [Elfangor, Yeerks, morphing… All of it.]

[Oh,] I said. [I'm going to fight the Yeerks and avenge Elfangor. I think I'm handling it just fine.]

[Hm. I suppose I'm still having trouble believing it,] said Hermione. She looked up at the sky. [Extra-terrestrial life… if the world knew about this, it would completely change everything we know about science and the universe.]

[Sort of like if the world knew about magic?] I asked.

Hermione let out a laugh. [Yes, I suppose you're right.]

We were silent for a while, watching Malfoy and Neville fly in a big loop around the far side of the castle.

[I think we should go check the crash site,] I told her.

[Oh?] The black, doll-like eyes of Hermione's tawny owl morph fixed on me. [Harry, they wouldn't have left anything behind.]

[I just need to see it for myself,] I insisted. [It's something I have to do.]

[Okay,] Hermione said. [But keep in mind that there's a time limit. If we stay in our morphs for over two hours…]

[…We'll be trapped in the morphs forever. I remember now,] I said. [How long do you think it's been?]

[Only twelve minutes since you first morphed,] Hermione replied. [I've been watching the clock tower.]

[Thanks, Hermione.] Trust her to look out for the important details everyone else missed— I don't know what I'd do without her. I glanced at the large, ornate face of the Hogwarts clock tower. [We'll be able to see that from a distance with our owl-vision, I think.]

Neville dropped in for a landing beside Hermione, if a bit clumsily, and Malfoy swooped down on my other side.

[Did you see me?] Neville exclaimed. [I can fly! I can actually fly! Me, of all people!]

[Good,] I said, [because we're going to fly for a bit.]

[Any particular destination in mind, or are we going to be wandering aimlessly?] asked Malfoy.

[I want to find where Elfangor's ship crashed.]

Malfoy's eyes widened and his morph's ear-tufts stood on end. [That… doesn't seem like a good idea. The Yeerks might be monitoring the place.]

[We'll fly away if we see anybody near the crash-site,] I said quickly. [I just need to see what's left of it.]

[I understand,] said Neville.

[Come on. Let's go,] I said. I leapt off of the owlery roof and dived for the sheer pleasure of it, the others following on silent wings behind me. We all soared up high over the Forbidden Forest, scanning the ground with our powerful eyesight.

We flew for only a few minutes before finding the trail Elfangor's ship had left as it ploughed through the forest. Following it, we came across the gully where Malfoy and I first discovered the crashed space ship.

Hermione's suspicion had been correct. There was nothing left of the ship, not even the debris that had been knocked off during the crash. The Yeerks had picked the place clean. Besides the trail of destruction and the crater, which both looked as though they could have simply been caused by a large asteroid, there was no sign that Elfangor had ever been there or even existed…

Except for us.

We were there for a few hours, with a break to de-morph and morph again in order to re-start the time limit. We went off on our own for most of the time we were there. I guess we all needed some space to think about that night. I certainly did.

I wondered how we could possibly fight the Yeerks. It felt like there was so much more we needed to know to even have a chance. I wished that we had just a few more minutes with Elfangor so that he could answer even a fraction of the questions brewing in my head like a storm-cloud. But he was gone. We were alone.

I told the others to regroup. We stood together in the branches of a tall oak tree.

[We're not going to find anything here,] I said. [Everything's gone. The Yeerks destroyed it all. Elfangor's dead. We're on our own, now. There's nothing here that can help us, so we have to help ourselves. We need to decide where to go from here. Ideas?]

[I think we should learn as much as we can about the Yeerks,] said Hermione. [We need to study them, and learn how they operate. We should also learn as many defensive spells as we can before the end of the school year. If there really are witch and wizard Controllers, we'll need to be able to protect ourselves from magical attack.]

[How do you plan on studying the Yeerks if we don't know where they are?] asked Malfoy. [What we need to do is find this 'Yeerk Pool' Elfangor mentioned and see who's there. Then we'll know who the Controllers are, and once we know the location of the Yeerk Pool we can plan an attack against the pool itself. From what Elfangor said, that seems like the best way to defeat them: destroy the Yeerk Pool, destroy the Yeerks.]

[Maybe we could learn more about possible morphs?] Neville suggested timidly.

[Those are all good ideas,] I said. [We'll do all of that. We can search for the Yeerk Pool entrance today. Elfangor said there was a Yeerk Pool not far from here, after all.]

[When did we decide that _you _were the leader?] Malfoy asked.

[I'm not the leader, I was just trying to figure out what to do,] I sighed. [Do you want to have a vote? No prizes for guessing who you'd choose to be leader, I suppose.]

[Don't presume,] Malfoy chided. [You're right, of course, but you know what they say about making assumptions.]

[I vote for you, Harry,] said Neville.

[Amazing. He's not even wearing shoes anymore and you're still licking away at those boots,] Malfoy taunted.

[Leave him alone, Malfoy,] I said. [You're the smartest, Hermione. You should be in charge.]

[Books and cleverness,] said Hermione. [There are more important things. You and Malfoy are both out-voted, Harry. That means you're the leader.]

I was surprised and humbled by Hermione's words, and uncertain of what I had done to earn them. Malfoy just shrugged his wings and grumbled a bit, but didn't really protest. Maybe he didn't care. He wasn't going to be around any longer than it took to replace him, after all.

And with that, I somehow found myself the leader of our little team. We took to the skies once more and began our search. But as the hours went on and the ground still left unsearched dwindled with the setting sun, it began to look like we would never find an entrance to the Yeerk Pool. We were exhausted from flying and morphing all day, hungry from missing lunch, and frustrated by our lack of progress just when it seemed we were getting somewhere.

Finally, we agreed to give up the search for the day and head back to the school for dinner. We returned to the owlery.

Malfoy de-morphed first and went to retrieve our clothes and wands from the staff-section of the owlery. "Wait a moment… I don't see our things. They're not where I left them."

[What?] Hermione gasped. [Do you mean someone's stolen them? But only the professors and other staff can go in there!]

[I wouldn't put it past some of them,] I said.

[What do we do?] Neville asked.

"Wait! I can feel them!"

[What?] I resisted the impulse to look.

[What do you mean? You just said you didn't see them,] Hermione said.

"I can feel them, but I can't see them," Malfoy explained. I heard a rustling sound, likely our clothes being pulled over the stone floor. "Hold on, now they're visible again."

[How can that be?] I asked.

[Someone must have cast an invisibility spell over the place Malfoy put them,] Hermione deduced.

[Who would do that?] asked Neville.

"I don't know, but they must have saved our clothes and things from being discovered," said Malfoy. "I didn't expect us to be gone so long. Plenty of people must have gone through here by now."

[Why would someone cast an invisibility charm to hide our clothes?] Hermione wondered. [Do you suppose that means someone knows about us?]

"How would they know?" asked Malfoy. "I'm pretty sure if I found a pile of clothes and wands hidden somewhere, my first thought wouldn't be 'four students were given the ability to shape-shift in order to fight an alien invasion, but had to be naked to do it'."

[If there is someone who knows about us,] I said, [at least it looks like they're trying to help.]

We de-morphed and got dressed in turn, all carefully avoiding looking at one another during the process. Finally, we left the owlery and crossed the grassy field of the south-west courtyard.

"I should probably wait and let you go on ahead," Malfoy said, stopping at the bottom of the stairs that led to the front entrance. "We shouldn't be seen together if we don't want people to get suspicious."

"Maybe I should wait, too," said Neville. He gave Hermione and me a weak smile. "We're not really friends, either."

"Yes we are," I said. Neville's eyes widened a little in surprise.

Hermione looked thoughtful. "Well, we did all have detention together just last night. We could claim that we got to talking and became friends. It would make it easier to explain why we'll be spending so much time together from now on."

Malfoy waved his arm towards the door. "Well then, apparent new friends, shall we go to dinner?"

We entered the Great Hall. Though we arrived in time for dinner, it seemed we were tardy enough that most students had already finished and left—including Ron, it seemed. Hermione waved at Malfoy as we parted ways for our respective houses' tables. I saw a few first years look at us in confusion, but like Hermione predicted, they seemed to accept our supposed friendship at face value.

Eating quickly, I was nearly done with my first helping of dinner when I saw Madam Merrythought approach Malfoy at the Slytherin table.

Madam Merrythought was a petite woman with kind blue eyes, attractive features, and long blond hair. She wore fashionable robes and a pair of spectacles that magically changed colour to match her outfit. As pleasant as she was pretty, she was very well liked by just about all of the students and professors at Hogwarts.

I watched them for a while, wishing that I still had my owl morph's sharp senses so I could hear what they were saying. But I knew Malfoy was a member of one of the Circles, though I wasn't sure which one, so I thought it probably had something to do with Circle business.

"Harry," Hermione said, pulling my attention back to the Gryffindor table, "I was thinking that this evening we could go to the library and do the _research _that we discussed earlier."

"Oh. Yeah, alright," I said. "Good idea."

I looked up at the high table, where most of the professors and other staff sat to eat. My thoughts went back to the invisibility charm in the owlery. The person who cast the charm had to be a professor—only staff members were allowed into that part of the owlery. Was it possible that one of them really knew what we were doing and tried to help us?

And, come to think of it, was it possible that there were Controllers in the Hogwarts staff?

I shivered at the thought and suddenly wasn't in the mood to eat any more of my dinner, though just a minute ago I had been hungry enough to have seconds and thirds and even dessert afterward.

I stood up and patted Hermione and Neville on the shoulders. "I'll meet you in the library. Bring Malfoy, alright?"

"See you there," said Neville.

I intended to go right to the library, but was held up in one of the corridors. It was Hagrid. Like he always does whenever he's indoors, he looked simply too big to be allowed. He's about twice as tall as a normal man and five times as wide, making him big enough to block an entire hallway without even trying.

"Oh, there you are, Harry!" he exclaimed. "I've been lookin' all over for yeh!"

"Hello, Hagrid," I said, smiling up at the gigantic man. "Why were you looking for me?"

He looked positively miserable. "I was trying ter apologize for leaving you in the forest last night. I realized yeh must be really angry ter ignore my invitation for tea, so I had teh come find yeh and apologize in person."

I immediately felt terrible. "Hagrid, I'm sorry. I completely forgot that you invited me. Something came up, and… I'm not angry, I promise."

Hagrid gave me a relieved smile. "Thank Merlin! I really am sorry I left yeh, though. I had ter take care of summat and lost track o' time."

"What were you doing, anyway?"

"Er…" Hagrid's smile faded and he looked away. "Well, er, yeh see… I was—Well, I've got some things in the forest that I'm not necessarily supposed ter have, and… I just wanted to make sure nobody was goin' to run afoul of it, yeh understand?"

"What do you mean?" I asked. I frowned. "Not another dragon, is it?"

"No, no, no, nothin' like that," Hagrid said, waving his dustbin-lid-sized hands. "Sorry about that, too. I didn't mean for yeh ter get in trouble over…" He leaned closer and whispered, "yeh know, _Norbert."_

"It's alright," I said. "It's my own fault anyway. Even after Malfoy ratted us out, we wouldn't have been caught if I hadn't forgotten my invisibility cloak."

The invisibility cloak was exactly what the name implied. It once belonged to my father, and was given to me that Christmas by an anonymous caretaker with nothing but a note telling me to 'use it well'. Hermione and I used the cloak to sneak Norbert to Charlie Weasley, Ron's dragon-tamer brother. But then I stupidly left it on the Astronomy tower, which eventually lead to us being caught and given detention. The cloak was gone when I went back to the tower, so someone must have taken it. I was furious with myself for losing the cloak. It was all I really had of my father.

"So, funny thing about last night," said Hagrid. "Did yeh see that comet that crashed down in the forest?"

"Er, no," I said, ignoring the squirm of nervousness in my gut. "We must have left before that."

"That's too bad, yeh missed quite a sight," Hagrid said. "It completely lit up the forest. I guess it must've started a fire or somethin'. O' course, by the time I got there it had gone and burnt out."

"Really," I said.

"The comet must've burnt up before it even landed, I couldn't find any pieces left o' the thing. Too bad, that," said Hagrid. "Space rocks can be worth quite a bit o' galleons, ter the right wizard."

"That is too bad," I said, though on the inside I was relieved that Hagrid hadn't seen anything. Hagrid could never keep a secret, and if the Yeerks found out that he knew what happened that night…

"Anyway, yeh should come down ter me hut some time," said Hagrid. "Aren't yer exams soon? You an' Ron an' Hermione can come celebrate after! I'll make sandwiches and biscuits for yeh!"

I tried to force a smile around my grimace. Hagrid is a good friend but a terrible cook. "That sounds great, I'll see you then."

After saying goodbye to Hagrid, I continued to the school's vast library and found a table out of the way where we could work unnoticed by the rest of the students. Time went by as I absentmindedly thumbed through various advanced Defense Against the Dark Arts texts, though as a first year I couldn't really understand much of the subject matter.

It was nearing curfew and still Hermione, Malfoy and Neville hadn't showed. Most of the other students were starting to leave. I was about to give up and head to Gryffindor tower when Madam Merrythought entered the library. To my surprise, she was heading my way.

She arrived at the table and smiled. "Hello, Harry. I'd like to talk to you in my office for a little while, if you don't mind?"


	5. Chapter 5

I'm sorry I didn't post this earlier in the week, I got distracted again. I'll try to post the next chapter within the next couple days to make up for it. Please comment, I love to hear what you guys think :)

* * *

**Chapter Five**

**I** looked up at Madam Merrythought in confusion. "But it's almost curfew…"

"I'll escort you to Gryffindor tower once we're done—no need to worry about getting another detention for being out after dark," she said with a laugh. "Now, please, if you'd follow me…"

She led me out of the library and up the stairs. Merrythought's office was on the fifth floor in the southern part of the castle. She held open the door and waved me inside.

The office was small but comfortable, with a large stained-glass window overlooking the lake and part of the grounds. At that time of night, however, it was too dark to see very much. Her desk was made of a warm mahogany; its surface was covered with various parchments and important-looking documents, as well as framed photographs of family and friends. Hanging on the walls were paintings (though no portraits), pictures of Madam Merrythought meeting various people and visiting exotic lands, and group photos of the student members of the Circle. I spotted Hermione, Malfoy, and Neville, each in different groups. They weren't labeled; I absently wondered which Circles Malfoy and Neville attended. A few book-shelves and filing cabinets were placed against the walls. Hanging from the high, vaulted ceilings were a few decorative pots, shaped sort of like upside-down teardrops, which housed strange, colourful plants that I hadn't learned the names of yet.

"I see you've noticed my little garden collection," Merrythought said as she sat down behind her desk in a plush high-backed chair. "I gave a few rare seeds to Professor Sprout for Christmas this year to grow with the Herbology club. She was so grateful that this spring she gave me a few starts for some of my very favorite magical flowers—she's such a kind woman, bless her."

I nodded. "They're lovely. The plants I mean."

"Aren't they?" said Merrythought fondly. "Would you please have a seat, Harry?"

I sat down in the remaining chair, which was very stylish but vaguely uncomfortable.

"So, Harry, I'd like to know how you've been enjoying it here at school," said Merrythought.

"Oh…" I shrugged. "I'm enjoying it."

"You like all of your classes?"

"Yes," I said. After a moment's pause, I couldn't help but grin. "Well, maybe not Potions or History of Magic."

Merrythought hid her quiet laughter behind a well-manicured hand. "I know, Professor Binns is such a bore. I've been trying to convince Dumbledore to have him retire so a new professor can be assigned to the position, but as of yet the Headmaster hasn't seen things my way. Professor Binns has been here so long, I think Dumbledore's just attached to the old ghost. You know, Professor Binns was the history teacher back when _I_ was a student."

"Was he still alive back then?"

"Yes, though you wouldn't have guessed it by looking at him—he certainly wasn't any livelier, despite in fact being alive," said Merrythought. She smiled fondly and sighed. "I do love this school, though."

"Yeah," I agreed. "I like it here more than any place I've ever been. Though I guess I've never been in that many other places."

"I suppose we share that feeling, Harry, though I've been all over the world since I finished school," said Merrythought. "My aunt, Galatea Merrythought, was once a professor here. She taught Defense Against the Arts for nearly fifty years. And she raised me after my parents died."

She picked up one of the framed photos on her desk and showed it to me. It was of an older woman with grey-streaked brown hair worn in a bun, old-fashioned spectacles, and eyes the same colour as Madam Merrythought's. She gave me the impression of a friendlier version of Professor McGonagall.

"I've seen every corner of the world, and yet no place has ever felt more like home to me than Hogwarts," Merrythought said. She set the photo back down. "I loved exploring all of the little nooks and crannies in the school—and getting into more than my fair share of trouble, of course! They used to say that the Sorting Hat had made a mistake and aught have put me in Gryffindor!"

"I don't go looking for trouble, if you're talking about what happened last week…"

"No, of course not. I never went looking for trouble, either," said Merrythought, smiling kindly. "That's the tricky thing about trouble. It finds us all on its own."

"So… you're not upset that I was caught out after dark?"

"No, no. You've had your punishment, it's all water under the bridge as they say," Merrythought said. "What was your detention? Not too horrible, I hope?"

"No," I said. "We had to go out into the Forbidden Forest one night and find potions ingredients."

"What night was that?"

"Last night."

"Oh?" Merrythought's eyebrows went up with interest. "Did you see it?"

My eyes widened. "Er, what do you mean? See what?"

"I've been hearing that a meteor crashed in the forest last night. I was already in bed, but apparently it created a light so brilliant that it could be seen all the way from the castle," explained Merrythought. "You must have been able to see it."

"Um, no, I didn't," I said. "We'd already gone back to the castle. I must have been asleep by then, I don't remember a thing."

"Really," said Merrythought. "Are you sure you didn't—"

There was a knock at the door behind me.

Merrythought let out a quiet sigh. "Come in."

The door opened, and I couldn't have been less happy to see who it was. Professor Snape is a very thin, sallow-skinned man with long curtains of greasy black hair, a long hooked nose, and black eyes like dark tunnels. He's the potions master, and my absolute least favorite teacher.

"Madam Merrythought," Snape said, nodding just slightly in a greeting.

"Good evening, Professor," replied Merrythought, though she looked slightly annoyed. I was glad to see that I wasn't the only one that disliked Snape.

"I need to borrow Mister Potter, if you don't mind," Snape said. Even his voice seemed slimy.

"For what, if I might ask?"

"You might ask, but you won't get an answer," said Snape.

Merrythought actually glared at him. I'd never seen Merrythought glare at anything, even when her former house Hufflepuff was beaten handily by Slytherin in that year's Quidditch tournament.

Snape seemed to relent. "I have been given orders to speak with him about an important matter."

"Whose orders?" Merrythought asked.

"Someone with a higher authority than you."

"You mean…" Merrythought drifted off. I guessed that they were talking about Headmaster Dumbledore. "Why?"

"Perhaps you should trust his judgment on such things," Snape suggested. "I do have certain _advantages,_ of which you are not in possession."

Merrythought's eyes narrowed a little as she thought. Her gaze drifted to me. After a second, a small smile appeared on her face. "I see. Very well, Professor Snape."

I nearly groaned. I liked Merrythought much more than Snape. Even if she was starting to ask some awkward questions, I would have been able to lie my way through them and get back to something less uncomfortable. There were no words for how much I didn't want to spend any more time with Snape than I had to.

"Perhaps we'll speak again soon, Harry," Merrythought said, her tone and demeanor friendly once more. "Good night."

"Good night, Madam."

Snape led me out of the office and towards the stairs.

"I presume you have heard the rumors?" he asked.

"About the meteor in the forest?"

Snape nodded. "And it is my understanding that you had been sent to the forest on that very night to serve your detention."

"I keep telling everyone that I didn't see anything," I said. "None of us did. We all went back to the castle."

"How odd," Snape said, "because I was under the impression that the four of you were meant to be in detention the whole night."

"Er—Hagrid," I said. "He said it was alright."

"Then why did he spend all afternoon lumbering down the castle corridors in an attempt to, I quote, _'find Harry and apologize ter him fer leavin' him in the forest last night'_?" Snape sneered. "Why would he say that if he had sent you back to the school?"

"Uh… I…"

Snape stepped suddenly into my path and turned to face me. "Because you are _lying."_

I stared up at him, eyes wide with shock. _No… please, no…_

"The four of you left detention without permission," Snape hissed. "I could have you all expelled for that. In fact, if Mister Malfoy hadn't been among your number, you would already be packing your trunks and saying goodbye to your former classmates."

For several seconds, all I could do was blink stupidly at him as I attempted to figure out what he had just said. When his words finally sunk in, I was so relieved I could have kissed him (I thankfully resisted the urge). For a horrified second, I had thought that Snape figured out what happened that night—or worse, that he was a Controller!

"Oh," I said finally, trying not to show the relief on my face.

"However, since Mister Malfoy was indeed with you that night… I will have to settle for taking ten house points from each of you—which, if you cannot count, means _thirty_ points from Gryffindor," Snape said.

As the Slytherin Head of House, Snape greatly favored the Slytherin students over the rest of the school. This was especially true for Malfoy, his favorite student. At any other time, I might have been furious at the Snape's unfairness. But I couldn't care less about house points anymore. All that mattered was that Snape didn't know the truth and we weren't expelled.

"In addition," said Snape, "All four of you will serve detentions with me every Monday night, from the end of dinner until curfew, for the rest of the school year."

That, however, did manage to dampen my mood. There were only a few weeks until the end of the year; we needed all the time we could while we still had access to the school's library. Not to mention we had to find the Yeerk Pool entrance, identify Controllers, and research new morphs.

"You will report to the potions classroom promptly at six-thirty. Like the detention you skipped out on, you will be harvesting potions ingredients," Snape said. A cruel little grin appeared on his face. "However, these potions ingredients will be harvested from animals, not plants."

Snape chuckled darkly at my disgusted grimace. Nauseating visions of dissecting toad spleens and bat hearts swam in my mind. We headed all the way up to the seventh floor and walked down a corridor lined with suits of armor until we were standing in front of the portrait of the fat lady wearing a pink dress.

"Just so that you know, Potter," Snape sneered, "if the four of you try to skip these detentions like you did the last one, I _will_ find a way to expel you and not Mister Malfoy. Don't doubt that."

With one last smug look my way, Snape turned on his heel and walked back down the corridor, his long black cloak billowing behind him.

Cursing Snape under my breath, I turned towards the portrait of the fat lady in the pink dress.

"Password?" said the Fat Lady.

"Bundimun."

The portrait swung open, revealing a round hole in the wall. I climbed through to enter the Gryffindor common room. It was a large round room decorated in red and gold, the Gryffindor house colours, and hung with paintings and tapestries. There were lots of squashy over-stuffed armchairs around the room, tables and wooden chairs where we could do homework or play games, and a big fireplace with a comfy sofa in front of it.

The common room was surprisingly empty, except for Hermione, who was sitting on the sofa with her back towards me.

"There you are!" I said. "I waited for you and the others at the library, what happ—"

She was crying. I froze, brows furrowing. "Hermione?"

She sniffed and wiped her eyes before turning to look at me. "Hello, Harry," she said, smiling weakly. "Where have you been?"

"… Are you okay?"

"I'm alright, don't worry," said Hermione. "There isn't anything wrong."

That had to be a lie. Even girls don't usually cry over nothing, do they?

"Why aren't you in your dormitory yet?"

"Oh, I just wanted to wait until Parvati and Lavender were asleep. I didn't want to bother them," Hermione said. "I'm not tired, it's alright."

"Oh… Do you want me to stay down here with you a while?"

"No, I'm alright," she insisted. Her lip quivered and she had to bite it to keep from letting out a sob. "Harry… I just want to be alone for a while. I'll be alright."

I looked down at the rug beneath my shoes. "Okay. If you're sure."

Hermione nodded. "Good night, Harry. I'll see you tomorrow."

"Good night," I mumbled. Feeling uncomfortable and uncertain, I crossed the room and climbed the stairs to the boy's dormitories until I reached the dorm for my year.

Inside, Ron was playing Exploding Snap, a wizarding card game, with our dorm-mates Seamus Finnigan and Dean Thomas. Neville was lying in bed reading—he met my eyes briefly and gave me a hidden smile before returning to his book.

When they saw me, Ron, Seamus, and Dean exchanged glances. I wondered what, exactly, was going on. But they just invited me to join their game and didn't mention anything out of the ordinary. We talked about the Quidditch pick-up game we had planned for tomorrow, about exams next week, about the big party at the Circle meeting on Friday—all events that I was surprised to find I had completely forgotten. It almost felt like my life as I had known it before the previous night and the life I knew now could not exist at the same time.

We played for about an hour before everyone decided to go to bed. I changed into pajamas and brushed my teeth, but when I pulled back the sheets of my bed, I was surprised to discover my invisibility cloak folded neatly underneath them. There was a note pinned to it: **_Just in case._**

I looked around. Everyone else was either showering or using the toilet. Quickly, I went to the trunk at the foot of my bed and opened it.

For reassurance's sake, I checked the bottom of my trunk. The morphing cube was still safely hidden, shimmering softly with blue light. I put the invisibility cloak on top of it, then buried them both with the rest of the trunk's contents. I closed and locked the trunk just before Dean re-entered the dorm.

Soon everyone was settled in their beds. I lay under my covers for several minutes. But I couldn't sleep. My head felt too full with the events of the day.

I wondered who had returned my invisibility cloak. I recognized the handwriting on the note. It had to belong to the same person who gave me the cloak in the first place. But who was it? Why did they insist on secrecy? And to what end did they want me to 'use it well'?

One by one, I heard my dorm-mates' breathing settle into quiet and not-so-quiet snores. Seamus, Dean, and eventually Neville all fell asleep. I wondered what gave him peace of mind that I lacked.

"Harry?" Ron whispered in the quiet.

I opened my four-poster's curtains. There was a little light shining through the small windows, allowing me to see Ron lying on his bed through the gloom. "What is it?"

"What's going on?" he asked.

I tensed. "I don't know what you mean."

"At breakfast you said that you were coming back up to the dorms to take a nap," he said. "But when I came up to get a jumper, you weren't here."

"I… well…"

"Were you with Hermione?"

"Yeah," I said, a lie forming quickly in my mind. "We decided to go study. She's still anxious about exams. You know how she gets about things like that. And you said that you were tired of studying, so…"

"Oh… well, you could have invited me along, if you wanted to. I wouldn't have minded…"

Guilt churned deep in my chest.

He hesitated, as if uncertain of saying anything else. "If you were with her today… Do you know what's wrong with Hermione? She was crying, and…"

"I don't know," I said honestly. "I wasn't with her after dinner. It must have happened then."

Ron sighed. "Okay. I wish we knew what was wrong. I don't know how to help."

"I don't, either," I said.

We lay in silence for a few minutes, trying to think of what could have upset our friend.

"We should do something nice for her," Ron suggested.

"Yeah," I said. "Maybe you can think of something."

"Yeah," said Ron. He nodded and seemed to feel better. "Yeah. I'll think of something. Good night, Harry."

"Good night, Ron."

Ron closed his curtains. I could hear him turn over and settle in.

I paused. My mind was fixated on the morphing cube in my trunk.

I could tell Ron everything right then. Tell him about meeting Elfangor, the Yeerk Invasion... I could use the cube to give him the morphing ability. It was right there. No one else was awake.

Worry twisted through my gut. Could I trust Ron?

Of course I could! He was my best friend. I could trust him with anything…

Elfangor's words came back to haunt me. _Even those closest to the host do not realize that their loved one has been turned into a Controller._

The paranoia was overwhelming. Even Ron—my best friend, who acted just like he always did, who worried about his friends… could even he could be one of them?

I was certain he couldn't be. I would know if he had been taken over. I didn't care what Elfangor said.

… But could I really tell Ron what was going on?

No. Not on my own. Neville was right. We had to stick together. Tomorrow, I'd suggest Ron as a possible addition to our group. Besides, I didn't even know how to use a morphing cube. We'd figure it out, agree that he was an obvious choice to join the group, and _then_ we'd tell Ron. Together.

With that decided, my guilt faded. I slowly drifted off to strange dreams. I was fighting Snape, who suddenly swelled up into a gigantic slug the size of a whale— I morphed into an Andalite, sliced him open with my tail-blade, and three owls came flying out of the wound.


	6. Chapter 6

My Animorphs books were delivered last week. Yay! Although holy cow, I messed up a lot of stuff in those early chapters. Ah, well, that's what re-writes are for.

Speaking of which, the closer I get to the end of this book, the more problems I find. As a result, it might take a bit longer to edit the last few chapters. Not to mention I haven't even started writing book 2 yet. Please be patient when the time comes. And as always, comments are my writing fuel, so if you want me to keep going, please let me know what you think of the chapter and story thus-far. I love hearing from you. Enjoy!

* * *

**Chapter Six**

**F**or the second day in a row, I woke up to see one of my friends leaning over my bed. But it wasn't Ron this time. It wasn't even a boy.

"Hermione?" I rubbed my eyes to make sure I wasn't seeing things. Nope, still there. "What are you doing in here? This is the boy's dormitory!"

She helpfully plucked my glasses from the bedside table and gave them to me. When I could see her clearly, I realized that Hermione looked far better from the previous night, except there were dark circles under her slightly too-wide eyes.

"What's going on?" I asked. "Has something happened?"

"Oh, no, not at all, I just wanted to tell you that I've been doing a lot of reading from some of the Defense Against the Dark Arts books that I borrowed from the library—I borrowed them to study just in case there were any questions in our exams about topics that weren't discussed during the curriculum, you can never be too prepared after all—but I was reading them last night because of what we discussed yesterday, and I think we might be able to start practicing some of the spells from the books as long as we all study the basic theory so I waited for you to wake up but it seemed like it had been a while so I decided to come up here and wake you up myself so we could get started before—"

"Hermione, _Hermione!"_ I had to hold up my hands to get her to stop. "First of all, what time is it?"

"About half-past six," Hermione answered pleasantly.

I groaned and flopped back down in bed. "On a Sunday?"

"I thought we should get started as soon as possible, all things considered," said Hermione.

"Yeah, yeah," I admitted, though I didn't have to be happy about the early wake-up call. I opened my eyes and took another look at Hermione. "Wait…Did you stay up all night?"

"Don't worry, I'm not tired," Hermione said. "Really. Anyway, I couldn't sleep once I'd gotten started, it was all so fascinating."

"What did you find?"

"General protection spells, mostly," Hermione said. "The most complex spells were based on the conversion of harmful energy to neutral energy, but I think that would be too advanced for us until we're at least third years. What I thought was the most fascinating were Familiar Protection Spells, which I thought would be quite useful considering we'll be—"

"_Shh!"_ I hissed. I sat up and looked out at the dorm. As I'd suspected, all of my dorm-mates were still asleep, somehow undisturbed by Hermione's excited rambling. "Maybe we shouldn't discuss this here?"

"Oh, right!" Hermione said. "Sorry. Shall we wake up Neville and go find Malfoy— or do you suppose we should start calling him Draco, considering?"

"Malfoy's just fine," I said irritably. "Look, I doubt he's even going to be out of bed yet, let alone out of Slytherin territory. Before we do anything else, you go down to the common room so I can get showered and dressed. I'll be down in a little bit."

Thankfully, Hermione did what I asked. After about twenty minutes, I joined her in the common room. It was still early, so I managed to convince her to play a game of chess.

"Are you sure you're feeling better?" I asked.

"Yes, of course," said Hermione. "Don't worry, I'm alright."

"I'm glad," I said. "Will you be able to tell me what upset you?"

"Oh, I'd rather not say, it was just so silly," Hermione said. "It doesn't even matter anymore. I'm going to be better now."

That seemed like an odd way to put it, but I didn't press the issue.

"You never did tell me why you were late getting back to the common room," Hermione observed. "What happened?"

I told her about Madam Merrythought finding me in the library and taking me to her office to chat, then Snape interrupting and bringing me back to Gryffindor tower.

"Apparently we're not going to be expelled, but he's taking ten points from each of us and gave us detention with him every Monday night until the end of term."

Hermione's eyes widened.

"It's alright, there's only a couple weeks until then," I said. "But all things considered, I wish we didn't even have that. We've got too much to do."

"Oh—oh yes, that," Hermione said distractedly. As I looked closer, I realized that I could see little cracks in her calm exterior: the irritated redness of her eyes, the paleness of her face, the tightened skin around her brows…

"Are you sure you're alright?"

"Yes, I told you!" Hermione snapped. She looked down at the chessboard. "Sorry. Yes, I'm alright."

It must have been stress, I guessed. Hermione was naturally high-strung, and with the combined pressures of exams, the invasion, and trying to keep everything under-wraps, it was no wonder that she was starting to feel overwhelmed.

"It's okay," I said, giving her a smile. I glanced at her watch. "We might be able to wake up Neville and go to breakfast now. Malfoy probably won't be about, yet, but we can wait there for him."

While Hermione packed up her Defense Against the Dark Arts books, I went to the dorm and woke up Neville. We waited for him to get ready, and then headed down to the Great Hall for an early breakfast. To my surprise, Malfoy was already there, sitting at the almost empty Slytherin table. When we waved at him, he gave us a small nod.

Hermione, Neville and I started to eat. We kept glancing over at Malfoy. After spending almost the entire previous day together, it seemed strange that we couldn't interact properly while in the same room. All the more reason to recruit Ron as Malfoy's replacement, really. Being from different houses just made things too complicated.

Then again, I thought reluctantly, Malfoy hadn't been _too_ terrible. He was still rude and never missed an opportunity for a vicious remark, but he was willing to cooperate and could even be helpful at times. Not that I would ever prefer him as a teammate over Ron (or Dean, or Seamus, or any of a dozen other people), but Malfoy would do for now.

Neville suddenly rose from his seat. As Hermione and I watched, he walked across the Great Hall and approached Malfoy at the Slytherin table. The few other Slytherins present looked at Neville like they were wondering if he was lost.

He and Malfoy spoke and, after what seemed like a brief argument, Malfoy stood up, grabbed his plate, and followed Neville to the Gryffindor table.

Students were staring. The few staff members present were staring. It was one thing being friends with a Slytherin, but no student ever sat at another house's table. It was not an official rule, so we weren't really doing anything wrong, but it was still unusual.

"Are you sure you should be sitting here?" I asked.

Malfoy arched one of his brows. "Do you not want me to be here?"

I hesitated for a second. "Er… no, but—"

Malfoy sat down beside me. "Good kippers this morning."

"Yes," Hermione agreed mildly.

"I must admit I was a little surprised to see you lot up and about this early," Malfoy said.

"I thought the same about you being here," I said, feeling oddly tense.

"Mm. I had some trouble sleeping last night," Malfoy said. "Pass the juice?"

Neville handed over the pitcher. "Here you are, Draco."

"Malfoy," Malfoy and I both corrected. We glanced at each other before quickly turning our attention to our plates.

Malfoy suddenly snickered to himself.

"What?" I asked.

"Look at us all," he said. "Talking like… people who talk, instead of whatever we are."

We couldn't help chuckling a bit at that. His words seemed to have broken the tension.

"I don't know if you know," I said, "but Snape's making us serve detentions with him every Monday night."

"Ah, yes. I 'd heard that," Malfoy said. "Apparently I'm not to, how did he put it, _allow the Potter brat to convince me to skip these detentions like he convinced me to skip the last one."_

I rolled my eyes.

"What did he mean, skip the last one?" Neville asked.

I explained my encounter with Snape and the false conclusion Snape had come to about that night.

"Thank goodness he didn't figure out what _really_ happened," Hermione said.

Malfoy turned to me. "So, what do we plan on doing today?"

"Hermione's found some defense spells she wants us to try out," I said.

"I remind you that there's supposed to be a certain something that we're supposed to be searching for?" Malfoy said. "A certain something that we won't be able to search for in a few weeks?"

"Don't worry, we'll find it," I said. I glanced up at his forehead. "You finally got that cut healed, did you?"

"What?" Malfoy reached up to touch his forehead. "Oh, I forgot to tell you about this! I didn't have to go see the nurse, because the cut was gone after we—you know, yesterday."

I hadn't noticed at the time, but now that I thought about it, Malfoy was right. After we morphed and returned to our human forms, Malfoy's injury had completely vanished.

"What do you mean?" Hermione asked. "You think—doing what we did healed your injury?"

"What else could it have been?" Malfoy asked.

"So if we have any injuries, we can just do that and they'll be healed when we're done?" asked Neville. "That's handy."

"More like suspicious," Malfoy said. "What if someone catches onto the fact that a lot of our injuries seem to keep disappearing without us going to Madam Pomfrey or knowing any healing spells ourselves?"

"We'll just have to be careful about it," I said.

We finished our breakfast before long and I led everyone to one of the unused classrooms. Hermione shut and locked the doors, Malfoy closed the window blinds, and Neville and I pushed four of the old desks together into one big work station. Neville thoughtfully wiped the dust off of the desks with the sleeve of his robe before we sat down.

"Now, I've place-marked some of the spells that caught my eye," Hermione began, putting comically huge tomes on our desks, "as well as the accompanying background reading and theory—"

"Before we get started," I said, "I wanted to talk to you about something."

"Oh?"

"Do tell, Potter, don't leave us in suspense."

"I think we should consider who to add to the group," I said.

Everyone seemed to get a bit tense once more.

One of Malfoy's brows was arched. "It's a bit early for that, don't you think?"

"Who did you have in mind?" Neville asked.

"Ron," I said.

Hermione nodded. "Oh, well of course he—"

"Do you know he isn't a Controller?" Malfoy asked.

"He isn't," I said.

"Do you _know?"_

"Yes, Malfoy," I said, beginning to get annoyed, "I know."

"Have you followed him for three days to see if he goes to a Yeerk Pool?"

"I don't have to," I snarled. "I just know that he isn't a Controller."

"How do you know?" Malfoy asked. "Don't you remember what Elfangor said? They can be _anyone,_ even our best friends, so don't think that a person can't be a Controller just because you _like_ them."

"I know he's not a Controller!" I shouted. "I'd bet my life on it!"

"Would you bet _his_ life?" Malfoy asked, nodding towards Neville. He nodded towards Hermione. "What about her? Would you bet _her_ life on it? How about the entire world? Your life isn't the only one on the line, Potter."

"Harry, I know it's hard to hear, but I do think that Malfoy has a point," Hermione said. She held her hand up when I started to protest. "I'm not saying that Ron _is_ a Controller. I only mean that we should keep an eye on him for a few days. Then we'll have proof that he isn't a Controller, and we'll all feel completely certain about letting him join us."

"So until then we're just going to keep lying to him?" I demanded.

"Yes, for necessity's sake," Hermione said. "Think about the greater good. We'll be able to tell him the truth soon enough. And that'll give us time to figure out how to operate the Escafil Device."

"The what?" asked Neville.

"The shiny blue cube Elfangor gave us," I said distractedly. My attention was still focused on Malfoy. "Fine. We'll waste what little time we have left this year following Ron. But don't pretend you really think Ron's a Controller—you know that's not what this is about."

The Malfoy family and the Weasley family had been enemies for as long as anyone could remember. Though they were both old pureblood families, their views on Muggles had set them at odds for generations, the most extreme example being Malfoy and Ron's fathers. Mr. Weasley worked for the Ministry, protecting Muggles from magically tampered objects, while Mr. Malfoy secretly supported Voldemort during the last war because the Dark Lord believed in getting rid of Muggles.

Malfoy and Ron were no exception to this family feud. It seemed Malfoy compulsively insulted Ron's family for being poor or 'the wrong sort' of wizards, and they were almost constantly at each other's throats. While my own confrontations with Malfoy were never violent, Malfoy and Ron fought like cats and dogs.

Of course, from the expression on his face, it looked like Malfoy was considering adding a bit of violence to our own conflict. I was considering the same.

"I assure you, I'm able to keep my own feelings out of the situation," Malfoy said coldly, though I could see the anger bottled up right beneath the surface. "Which is more than I can say for you."

"Just because your families—"

"Just because he's your best friend doesn't mean you can automatically trust him," Malfoy cut across me. "I would think _you_ of all people would know that."

Neville's eyes widened. "Malfoy, don't."

"Me of all people? What do you mean?"

"Your father," Malfoy said. "He blindly trusted his best friend, too. He thought there was no possible way his friend could be one of the enemy."

"What are you talking about?" I asked.

Malfoy stared at me for several seconds of silence. "No one's told you, have they?"

"Told me _what?"_ I asked. "I don't know what you're talking about. Voldemort killed my parents."

"Your father's best friend betrayed your parents' location to the Dark Lord. Your parents died because your father blindly trusted him," Malfoy said. He leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms over his chest. "Try to keep that in mind, before you get us all killed, too."

* * *

The rest of the meeting was intensely uncomfortable. I refused to speak to Malfoy in anything except short, direct requests, such as "Pass that book." For his part, Malfoy seemed willing to stay quiet for most of our little study session. In fact, everyone seemed to avoid speaking, so we spent the rest of the morning in one long, awkward silence.

It seemed that the spells Hermione had found were even more complicated and confusing than I had expected. There were a lot of things I had to read before even attempting to start on the spells themselves. Most of the wording contained in the heavy tomes seemed too vague, and in some cases too specific for a general reader to understand. But perhaps it wouldn't have been so difficult if I could actually focus on the books. As it was, I usually found myself glaring at but not really seeing the same page for several minutes, completely consumed with silent rage.

I was angry at Malfoy, I was angry at Hermione, I was angry that no one had ever told me about my father's betrayer. I was angry that people kept expecting me to do things without explaining what was going on—Elfangor, whoever had sent me the invisibility cloak, the stupid books Hermione had put in front of me… I was angry at the Yeerks for making it so I couldn't even trust my best friend without stalking him for three days.

At long last, the bell tolled for lunch. I slammed the book shut and stood up.

"I won't be able to come back after lunch," I said. "I've got a Quidditch game planned with Seamus, Dean—" I glared at Malfoy, _"—and_ Ron."

Malfoy sighed exasperatedly but didn't argue. "Maybe we should all take the rest of the day off," he said. "I need to catch up with my housemates, anyway. They usually leave me to come and go as I please, but I'm not usually so reclusive. I don't want anyone wondering what we're up to."

"But we were making so much progress!" Hermione protested.

"What progress?" I asked. I waved my hand towards the books. "I don't understand any of this."

"But surely if we applied ourselves to the material just a bit longer…"

"Maybe we just need to leave the advanced spells alone for a while until we've learned a bit more about magic in general," I suggested. "If you still want to study something, you can prepare for exams. Or maybe you can try to figure out how the morphing cube works."

We went to the Great Hall. This time, Malfoy sat with his house at the Slytherin table. As far as I was concerned, even if there had been room, he would no longer be welcome with us at the Gryffindor table anyway. My short-lived tolerance of Malfoy had expired—I felt as though I hated him more than ever.

After lunch I gave Hermione the key to my trunk so she would be able to get the morphing cube, then went outside with Ron, Seamus and Dean. We grabbed our brooms and a Quaffle from the broomshed. With only two men a side, we played a simplified version of Quidditch with only Keepers and Chasers. Ron and Seamus would defend the goal hoops of their respective sides while Dean and I tried to get the Quaffle through the hoops and keep it away from each other.

I hadn't realized how much I needed to play until I was up there, playing and joking with my dorm-mates and enjoying the feeling of flight. I couldn't help but compare the sensation to flying as an owl, but mostly kept my mind free from thoughts of morphing, Yeerks, and all other alien related topics.

We played through most of the warm, sunny afternoon, and when we were tired of flying, Dean brought his football down from Gryffindor tower so we could kick that around for a while. Dean, a Muggleborn and passionate football fan, had been trying to teach Ron how to play throughout the year, with limited success.

Time seemed to fly and before long it was time for dinner. Sweaty and tired, but happy, we went to the Great Hall and ate seconds and thirds eagerly. Hermione and Neville weren't there, but I didn't worry about where they were. Hermione was probably just lost in studying or figuring out the morphing cube, and Neville was probably just plain _lost._ Even after a year, he sometimes had trouble remembering how to get around the school.

I looked across the Great Hall. Malfoy was sitting with his friends, chatting animatedly. My good mood faded slightly as I remembered my anger.

"Harry!"

I looked up. Hermione and Neville had arrived in the Great Hall and were heading towards me.

"Harry, you won't believe what I've found!" Hermione exclaimed.

Ron looked around and whispered so that Hermione and I would be the only ones who heard him. "Is it about the Philosopher's Stone?"

Hermione and I stared at him for a couple seconds in complete, gob-smacked surprise. Throughout the course of the school year, the three of us had discovered that Hogwarts was protecting the world's only known Philosopher's Stone, a substance that could transform any metal into gold and produce the Elixir of Life, which would make the drinker immortal. We knew that the professors had placed many magical enchantments and obstacles around the stone in order to protect it, but we also discovered that a few attempts to break through the defense had been made.

And it seemed Hermione and I had completely forgotten about it.

"No," Hermione said. "It's something I've been studying for exams."

Ron smiled. "Blimey, Hermione. Don't you think you've studied enough for exams? You hardly do anything else lately!"

"Well, it's probably not going to be on the exam, but I just want to be certain," Hermione said. "I was reading about Transfiguration and—"

Ron held up his hand and grimaced. "No thanks, don't tell me. I don't even want to think about exams tomorrow. Makes me ill just thinking about it."

Ill or not, that didn't stop Ron from piling his plate high with desserts.

Hermione caught my eye and gave me a pointed look.

"Well, I'm going to go change my clothes," I said. "I'll see you in the dorm later, Ron."

"See you later," Ron agreed.

Behind his back, I mouthed _classroom eight_ at Hermione and Neville. By the time I had gone back to the dormitory and changed out of my dirty clothes, I didn't have long to wait once I'd arrived. It was one of the more remote unused classrooms in the south side of the castle on the ground floor, overlooking the lake.

Hermione, Neville and Malfoy entered the classroom, shutting and locking the door behind themselves.

"What did you find, Hermione?" I asked. "Did you figure out the morphing cube?"

"It's called an Escafil Device, I don't know why you won't call it by its proper name," said Hermione. "And not exactly. You see, I started thinking, and I wondered if perhaps it's controlled by thought itself."

"What do you mean?"

"Elfangor didn't push any buttons, and there aren't any on the device to begin with, and there's no other way to operate it," Hermione said. "Morphing works by thinking about the animal you want to turn into, as does acquiring morphs. It seems logical that the Escafil Device would function the same way."

"So we won't know until we try it on Ron?" I asked.

"_If,"_ corrected Malfoy. I glared at him.

"But what I was really excited to discover was something else," Hermione said. "I was revising for our Transfiguration exams and found a spell that will allow us to transform while wearing our clothes, so that they transform with us!"

"Really? But I thought magical transformations automatically transfigured clothing," I said. "Why would there be a separate spell for it?"

"It's really quite fascinating!" Hermione said excitedly. "You see, many centuries ago, transfiguration into animals didn't include changing clothes with it, which led to much the same problem we've had. Naturally, a spell was invented that would cause clothing to be magically receptive to the same transformation occurring in the witch's or wizard's body. It was only later that the transfigurations themselves were adapted."

"Do you think that spell will work for us?" I asked.

"After a few less than successful tests…" Hermione trailed off and glanced at Neville. He took off his shoe and put his foot on top a desk. I thought for a moment that he was wearing a sock, but soon realized that his foot had taken on the colouring and texture of argyle—including a seam across his toes. Malfoy and I grimaced.

"I'm going to have to tell my Gran I lost another pair of socks," Neville said. "She's going to kill me. I don't know how I'm going to explain this if she ever catches me with my shoes off."

"I'm sure she's used to your magical blunders by now," Malfoy said. He winced. "If you could please put the sock-foot away, Longbottom, we've only just had dinner and I'm sure we'd all like to keep it down."

"Anyway, I practiced it on myself a few times and was able to get my clothes to morph and de-morph with me!" Hermione said. "The best thing is that our wands will morph with us too, as long as we're carrying them in our robes' wand-pockets."

"That's brilliant!" I exclaimed.

"Of course, it's not permanent," Hermione warned me. "According to the book, it needs to be re-cast before every transformation."

"If we can take our wands with us, that shouldn't be a problem," I said, grinning broadly. "This is great news, Hermione, really."

"Alright, so here's the spell, pay attention to my inflection," Hermione instructed. She drew her wand and waved it over her body. _"Gearwe Awendendylic! _Remember, the break between the syllables _'dend'_ and _'lic'_ is very short."

A faint shimmer of light rippled over her clothing before vanishing as quickly as it had appeared.

"The spell prepares the clothing to respond to any transformation I now do to my body," Hermione said, putting her wand in her pocket. "Which, luckily, includes morphing!"

She started transforming into her owl morph. We forced ourselves to watch the process—morphing was still a graceless, ugly affair, but true to Hermione's words, her clothes were transforming with her as if they were a part of her body. Within a few seconds, Hermione had turned into a tawny owl while wearing her clothes. When she de-morphed, her clothes returned with all her human features.

We spent the evening practicing the spells until all of us, even Neville with his sock-feet, could cast it perfectly.

"If there's no other business," Malfoy said, "I need to get back to the dungeons. I promised to help Crabbe and Goyle study for exams."

Crabbe and Goyle were two of Malfoy's dorm mates and more or less his best friends. They were also hulking, thickset, and incredibly stupid. They probably needed all the help they could get.

"Potter, Longbottom, you probably want to start watching Weasley," Malfoy said. "You two have all of the same classes with him and sleep in the same dorm. You're in the best position to track his movements. Follow him everywhere—even to the toilet. We still don't know where The Yeerk Pool is or how long it takes to go there."

I glared at him, but he was unmoved. He pointed sternly at Neville.

"Don't let Potter take it easy on him," Malfoy said. "Understand? We have to be absolutely sure."

My fists clenched. "Malfoy if you—"

"Harry…" Hermione said in a placating tone. "Remember what I said earlier. Just get through these three days, and it'll be over."

Still fuming, I nodded never-the-less. Malfoy turned to leave. He paused in the doorway and looked over his shoulder at me. He almost seemed to be considering whether or not to say something, but after only a brief moment he decided better of it and left.

"I'm sure you could stand to study a bit more, too, Harry," Hermione said. "Neville, would you watch Ron for us until we're done?"

"Ron can study with us," I said angrily. "Just because we have to do this stupid three days thing doesn't mean he's not our friend anymore."

"Oh—I didn't mean—I just thought because he said he didn't want to think about exams…"

I calmed, just slightly. "Something tells me he won't mind so much," I said, thinking of what Ron told me the previous night.

"Alright, we'll find him and study together," Hermione said.

Hermione and I tracked down Ron in the Gryffindor common room, and though he complained a little, his heart wasn't really in it. For the most part he just seemed glad to be spending time with both of us again. My earlier prediction had been correct.

We revised until everyone started going to bed and decided to get a good night's sleep before exams the next day. Hermione stealthily slipped the morphing cube and my trunk key into my pocket before we parted ways to go to our dormitories. I put the cube safely away in its hiding place and climbed in under my covers. But once more, I lay in bed, listening to my dorm-mates drift off in the darkness while unable to fall asleep myself.

It felt like I was itching with some unknown anxiety. Everything was weighing too heavily on my mind to rest. Meaningless facts I had studied that night drifted through my head even as I wondered about the location of the Yeerk Pool, Ron, my father's betrayer, the Philosopher's Stone, and countless other topics. The contentment I felt that afternoon had left me entirely.

I decided that going flying again would return me to that content state—but this time I would not be flying on a broomstick. After double-checking that all of my dorm-mates were snoring, I cast the _Gearwe Awendendylic_ spell on my pajamas, opened one of the small windows, morphed into Hedwig and sailed off into the welcome embrace of the nighttime sky.


	7. Chapter 7

Sorry this took so long. I was considering changing part of the ending of the "book", and wasn't sure how to go about doing that, so I took a break for a couple weeks to clear my mind. And then I got distracted by other things again. Story of my life, I swear.

Thankfully I think I've got the ending figured out, and can now post a bit more regularly. Hopefully. As always, comments are very appreciated, and I'm very sorry again for being so slow. I hope you enjoy this (very overdue) chapter.

* * *

**Chapter Seven**

**A**s great as flying as an owl during the daytime was, I discovered that it was nothing compared to flying at night. It was the owl's element, after all. Silent as the wind itself, I floated like a ghost high above the sleeping castle below. Everything was still and quiet. Every source of light was intensified a hundred times, giving the world an almost magical glow. I swooped down low over the lake, staring transfixed at the shining pool that was the moon's reflection on the water.

After making a wide loop around the school, I flew towards the owlery and drifted easily through one of the windows on the top level. But owls weren't the only thing in the owlery that night. Someone was standing at one of the other windows on the top floor, looking out at the castle.

Of course, it was Malfoy, because I was just so eager to see _him _of all people.

He quickly swiped at his cheeks with his fingertips before turning around and smirking at me. "Potter, I presume?"

I didn't reply, hoping he'd decide I was really Hedwig and leave me alone.

"Come off it, I know it's you. Your owl is already here," Malfoy said, nodding towards something to my left. I turned to look. The real Hedwig was perched in one of the alcoves, eating a mouse and giving me a very disapproving look.

[What are you doing here?] I asked, knowing that I was caught.

A troubled look appeared on Malfoy's face but vanished just as quickly. He crumpled up a piece of parchment in his hand. "The same thing as you are, I guess," Malfoy said, stuffing the letter in his pocket. "Couldn't sleep, went flying, came here to think— right?"

[Maybe,] I said. I turned around on the window sill to look outside, intent on ignoring him.

We stood at our windows for a few minutes of silence. But then the sound of approaching footsteps announced Malfoy walking towards me. He leaned against the wall, looking out through the same window I was.

"Potter… about what happened this morning, I…" He glanced at me and quickly looked away. "I wanted to say that—perhaps—I should have used a bit more… _tact_ in telling you about your father and his friend. That shouldn't have been the way you learned about it. I… apologize."

I stared at him for a second, eyes wide. Malfoy _apologized?_ Granted, it wasn't for the thing that I was really mad at him about, and it sounded forced at best, but the fact that he was sorry at all had me completely stunned.

[I… Okay,] I said. [Can you tell me more about it? About the man who betrayed my parents?]

"If you'd like," Malfoy said.

[I would.]

"His name was Sirius Black. According to my mother, your father was friends with him for years, all through their time at Hogwarts. Inseparable. They fought against the Dark Lord once they left school, but I suppose the Dark Lord somehow managed to convince Black to switch sides again. He told the Dark Lord where your parents were hiding, and… well, you know the rest," Malfoy said, giving me a strange look. "Later another of their friends tried to confront him about the betrayal. Black killed him and twelve Muggles with a single spell."

[Where is he now?]

"Azkaban. That's our prison," Malfoy explained. "He'll be there until he dies."

I glared out at the starry sky. [Good.]

"I didn't know that you hadn't been told about that," Malfoy said. "It's just that the easiest way for the Yeerks to get to you would be through Weasley. I don't even really think Weasley _is _a Controller; who would want to live in his empty skull, after all? But if it turned out that he was a Controller and we didn't take every precaution, I thought the same thing that happened to your father would happen to you and I didn't want that."

My eyes widened again.

"Because they'd come after us once they had you," Malfoy added quickly. "And I quite like having my brain free of alien parasites, thank you." He looked away uncomfortably. Then his brows furrowed. He leaned out the window and squinted down at something on the ground far below. "Is that the caretaker?"

I turned my head back around to look out the window. There was a figure wearing a black cloak, his hood covering his face. With my owl eyes, I was fairly certain that the figure was a man, and a spry one at that. He stood tall and walked with a long, confident gait. The unknown figure walked quickly between Ravenclaw tower and the west tower, where the owlery was located.

[Can't be, he's not limping like Filch,] I said.

"That's what I thought, but who else would be out at this hour?"

[Besides us, you mean?]

"Well, naturally."

We watched as the cloaked figure briskly crossed the grounds. He seemed to be heading for the Forbidden Forest.

Malfoy's eyes widened as he looked at me. "What if it's a Controller? What if he's going to the Yeerk Pool?"

[This is our chance!]

Malfoy quickly cast _Gearwe Awendendylic _on his clothes, changed into his owl morph, and joined me in the sky. The figure darted into the forest and we followed hot on his heels, trees rushing past us, the dark figure flitting in and out of our line of sight…

…And then the next second, we lost him.

[Where did he go?] Malfoy asked.

[He can't have gone far,] I said. We landed on a tree branch and listened intently for several seconds, turning our heads at every rustle in the bushes, every sudden breeze, every cracking twig.

Then we heard a strange noise like something slithering over the ground, or a cloak brushing through dry leaves.

I turned towards Malfoy. [That must be—]

A terrible shriek cut through the darkness. It made us flinch and chilled me to the bone.

[Oh my God,] Malfoy gasped. [What was that?]

[I don't know,] I said fearfully.

[Something bad just happened,] Malfoy fretted. The feathers of his eagle owl morph stood on end, making him look even bigger than usual. [W-we should leave. This isn't right.]

[No!] I shouted. [We have to find the Controller! We have to find the Yeerk Pool!]

[But—]

I leapt off the branch and flew in the direction the sound had come from, resisting the fear it had instilled. Malfoy followed a second behind, to my relief—I wasn't eager to face whatever had made that scary sound on my own— and we quickly made our way through the forest. At such high speed, the trees were tricky to fly between. I started to notice something shimmering on the forest floor: drops of silvery liquid, getting larger and more numerous as we closed in on our goal. An eerie slurping noise seemed to echo in my ears.

We entered a clearing and what we saw made us come to an immediate halt, wings flared out and desperately backpedalling in a way that would have been comedic if we weren't terrified out of our minds.

Lying crumpled in a pool of more silvery liquid was a unicorn. It was dead.

I'd never seen anything so beautiful and yet so sad. The unicorn's pure white body glowed ethereally in the darkness. Its legs stuck out at odd angles where the poor creature had fallen and its mane was spread over the dark leaves, shinning as brilliantly as moonlight. A shadow was crouched over the unicorn's body. As we stared in horror, the shadow lowered its head over the wound in the animal's side and began to drink its blood.

Malfoy screamed, both in thought-speak and aloud in the owl's shrill cry. The shadowy figure looked up from its meal to stare at us, silver unicorn blood dripping from its unseen mouth. A sudden pain like I had never felt before shot through me. It felt like I was being stabbed in the forehead with a red-hot poker. The pain blotted my vision, making it difficult to tell which way was up. I tumbled to the ground.

[Potter! What's happening?] Malfoy shouted desperately. The shadowy figure started to approach me. [Come on! We've got to get out of here! Get up, get up!]

I felt paralyzed. The shadowy figure started to laugh, its voice high and cold.

"I know you," he hissed gleefully. "Even in that form, I know you. I would know you anywhere… Harry Potter…"

Lots of sharp claws stabbed into my shoulders and suddenly I was being carried through the air, the forest floor rushing past me and the shadowy figure's terrible laughter echoing in my mind long after it had passed beyond my earshot.

The forest gradually fell away until I was soaring over the grassy fields surrounding Hogwarts. The pain in my head faded the further away we got from the shadowy figure. I was carried over the castle itself and finally put on one of the roofs on the far side of the building.

Malfoy returned to his human form and loomed over me. "Come on, Potter, de-morph! We're safe here, no one will see, you've just got to de-morph!"

I took several deep breaths to calm myself down. It seemed to take much longer than usual for me to de-morph after everything that had happened. The puncture wounds in my shoulders vanished as I finally returned to human form. I rubbed my eyes and sat upright.

"What was that— _thing?"_ I asked hoarsely.

"I was hoping you'd know," Malfoy said, still looking badly shaken. "It seemed to know who you were… What did it do to you?"

"I don't know," I said. "My head just started to hurt. It still hurts a little."

I rubbed my forehead—Malfoy's eyes widened.

"It must be your scar!" he exclaimed. "It's bright red."

I sat up and looked around in vain for something reflective to see for myself. "But that can't be. I was in owl morph, I didn't even have a scar then…"

"Well, that scar was given to you by a curse, wasn't it?" Malfoy said breathlessly. "Father said that his father had a scar from when he was part of a duelling league; he says that some curse scars don't just scar your flesh. I suppose that stays with you when you morph."

"But why would it start hurting?"

"I'm not sure," Malfoy said. "That never happened to my grandfather, or at least not that Father ever told me. Has it ever happened to you before?"

"Only a couple of times, and never this badly," I said. I looked out towards the Forbidden Forest. "Why was it drinking unicorn blood?"

"I don't know," Malfoy said. He looked extremely disturbed by the memory of what we'd seen. "I've never heard of anyone drinking unicorn blood. I've never even heard of anyone who had killed a unicorn before—I didn't know there could be anyone who _wanted_ to kill a unicorn."

I sighed. Now there was something _else_ I had to figure out.

"Don't tell the others about this," I decided.

"Why?"

"Because as far as we know that thing wasn't a Controller and didn't have anything to do with the Yeerks," I said. "Until I find out otherwise, I don't… I don't want…"

Malfoy was staring intently at me with a strange, canny expression on his face. He isn't as book smart as Hermione—who is?—but he is pretty smart, once you get past his… Malfoy-ness. "You don't want to burden them," he quickly realized. I nodded. I expected Malfoy to call me stupid or at least put up some kind of argument, but he simply nodded and said, "Alright, I won't tell them."

We sat on the roof in an awkward silence for a moment, until Malfoy cast _Gearwe Awendendylic_ on his clothes and approached the edge of the roof. There he paused, as if weighing something in his mind.

"So, have you reconsidered?" he asked suddenly. At my confused look, he continued. "Perhaps we… got off on the wrong foot, before. Considering we have to work together, we'd be well served by, er, putting aside our differences. In that spirit, I'd like to… renew my offer?"

I stared at him, uncomprehending. I finally realized what he was talking about a moment later. At the very beginning of the school year, Malfoy had asked me to be his friend. He was actually the first person my age I met when I entered the wizarding world. But as you can imagine, Malfoy isn't exactly great at first impressions, or second impressions for that matter. I turned him down, and we've disliked each other ever since.

"Oh," I said. He was right; it would be easier for everyone if we were friends. But would it really be that easy? Just brush everything under the rug and start over?

"You could certainly do worse than a Malfoy for a friend," said Malfoy. He laughed. "And you have done worse, so you know what I'm talking about."

Like I said, he can be really smart sometimes—but then the Malfoy-ness comes back and you remember that he's an idiot. I glared at him. "You know what, forget it. The answer's still no."

A flicker of hurt appeared on Malfoy's face before he was able to mask it away. "Never mind, then," he said snootily. "I don't really care, I just thought the team would function better if we didn't hate each other, at least. But I suppose it doesn't really matter, we get along well enough when it's important, so why bother. Good night, Potter, do try not to fail on your exams tomorrow."

He morphed back into his owl form and flew away, disappearing through an open window on the fourth floor of the castle.

I remained on the castle roof for a while, looking up at the vast blackness of the sky. My mind, which I had first left Gryffindor tower in an attempt to empty, now seemed twice as full.


	8. Chapter 8

I'm sorry this is so late (I say that a lot, don't I?). One of my sisters just had a baby, so that's been eating a lot of my time and brain space. Please forgive me. I hope you enjoy this chapter, I remember having a lot of fun when I wrote it. As always, I love hearing your thoughts so please leave some feedback. Thank you for reading!

* * *

**Chapter Eight**

**E**xams began the next day. The weather was unusually hot, making it almost unbearable in the room where we took our written exams. Sweat made my shirt stick uncomfortably to my back. The heat also made me want to go to sleep, especially after all the sleep I had been missing. My scar had begun to hurt far more often and more painfully than it ever had before. With everything I had on my mind, I could barely remember the facts I had been studying for the past week with Hermione. The combined stress caused me to break two of the special Anti-Cheating quills they'd given us for the exam.

There were also practical exams for Charms on Monday. Professor Flitwick, the tiny Charms professor, called us one by one into his classroom to see if we could make a pineapple tap-dance across a desk. However, I confused that charm for another, sending the pineapple rolling off the desk, over the floor, out the door, and down the hall before I finally managed to catch up to the thing and trap it under my hat. I had a feeling the pineapple was trying so hard to escape because I wanted to escape that situation so badly.

Needless to say, the entire day was completely miserable. And it wasn't likely that things would get any better, considering the detention with Snape. After dinner, I trudged down to the dungeons, tired, frustrated, and wishing that I could make like a pineapple and roll away. It only got worse when I saw the others and realized that, with the four of us in detention, no one would be able to watch Ron— meaning that we had to start the three days over again.

"How magnanimous of you to join us, Mr. Potter," Snape said when I entered the potions classroom. He glanced at the clock. "However, I believe I said that you were to arrive at six-thirty. You are late. I believe five points taken from Gryffindor will suffice."

My jaw clenched and my fingers tightened into fists. "I got here at the same time as everybody else!"

"And that will be another five points taken for talking back to a professor," Snape said.

Usually I would have backed off at that, but I was not in the mood to take Snape's blatant unfairness lying down. "I wouldn't have _been_ talking back if you hadn't taken points for no reason!"

"Very well, another five points," said Snape. "Would you like me to take more?"

"Harry," Neville whispered urgently, tugging on my sleeve.

I was too tired and my head hurt too much to keep arguing with Snape, so I rolled my eyes and crossed my arms over my chest. "No, Professor."

"Very good," Snape said. He turned to address all four of us. "You are here to harvest potions ingredients. However, before you begin, there is another task that I require. You will clean the cauldrons in the storage room. It seems that room has been infested by Chizpurfles."

I had never heard of a Chizpurfle before, but judging by the groans coming from Malfoy and Neville, I guessed they couldn't be anything pleasant.

"You'll find the necessary cleaning potion on that desk. As Chizpurfles are known to eat magic wands, I will of course be taking your wands now, meaning that you will have to clean all of the cauldrons by hand," Snape said. With great reluctance, we handed over our wands. "I am going to be in my office grading exams. But you will find that leaving this detention will be far trickier than leaving your last one—I've cast a Caterwauling Charm on the door to the classroom. If any of you attempt to leave, the alarm will sound, and you'll be expelled from Hogwarts faster than you can say Gryffindor."

Snape turned out of the room and slammed the door behind him.

"Gryffindor and Slytherin take the same length of time to say, you know," Neville grumbled.

"We'd better get started," Hermione said with a sigh.

"What is a Chizpurfle, anyway?" I asked.

"Magical parasites," Malfoy grimaced. "Disgusting."

"My Gran's pet Augurey got Chizpurfles once," Neville said. "It took ages for us to rid the house of them."

It turned out that a Chizpurfle was a tiny creature only about the size of a flea, with a round body, six segmented legs, two crab-like claws, and big fangs. They were also obsessively attracted to magic (including the magic in our bodies) and their bites were very painful, probably because they pinched our skin with their claws to anchor themselves while biting. Their bites left itchy bumps behind. We started scrubbing the cauldrons with the potion Snape had left for us, which was clear pink, smelled acidic and burned our skin.

"Yeowch!" I slapped a Chizpurfle that had crawled onto my arm and bitten me.

"I thought Snape liked me!" Malfoy whined. He let out a shriek when he found that one of the Chizpurfles had climbed onto the front of his robes. Patting furiously at his chest in an attempt to dislodge the tiny parasite, he shouted, "Get it off me, get it off!"

Neville let out a pained cry and started blinking rapidly, tears running down his cheeks. His eyes were bright red and inflamed. Hermione sighed. "Oh, Neville, you've touched your eyes with the potion, haven't you?

She led Neville out of the storage room and into the potions classroom, to the basin where ice-cold water flowed out of a gargoyle's mouth. Malfoy glanced at the door through which they'd gone, and then leaned closer to me. I realized that Malfoy had dark circles under his eyes that probably weren't dissimilar to my own.

"Potter," he said, voice hushed. "Last night, after… you know, I snuck into the restricted section of the library to look up what unicorn blood is used for."

"Really?" I asked. "What did you find?"

"Apparently it has very powerful healing properties. If you drink unicorn's blood, even if you're on death's door, it'll restore you to life," Malfoy said. "But unicorns are so innocent and pure that killing one is… well it's pretty much the worst thing anyone can do, according to the book I found. Drinking unicorn blood gives you life, but it's a cursed life because of what you had to do to get it. Everything good in your life twists into its opposite: beauty to ugliness, wealth to poverty, joy to sorrow, love to apathy, food to famine, dreams to nightmares…"

"Alright, alright, I get the idea. But who would…" I drifted off.

'Who would', indeed? Who was near death? Who was that desperate to come to life? Who would be evil enough to do such a thing? And, most incriminating—who could make my scar hurt and recognize me, apparently in any form?

There was only one option in my mind. "Voldemort."

Malfoy's eyes widened. "That's impossible. The Dark Lord is dead."

Common belief was that Voldemort had been completely destroyed when his curse re-bounded. When I learned about what happened to my parents, I had believed it myself. It was comforting to think that the man who killed them was gone for good. But Hagrid told me that he suspected Voldemort still existed in some form, in some distant land, unable to return to life but unwilling to die.

It seemed that distant land wasn't so distant after all.

Hermione returned, so Malfoy and I were unable to keep talking about what we'd seen. We resumed trying to get rid of the Chizpurfles.

"Neville will be alright, he's just got to flush his eye out with the water for a few minutes," Hermione said. She spotted a Chizpurfle on her skirt and quickly snatched it, pinching it between her fingers. She stared intently at the tiny parasite.

"Uh, Granger? I don't think you can kill them by glaring at them," Malfoy said. He smirked. "Maybe you should try _nagging_ them to death, that might work."

"I'm not trying to kill it," Hermione said. "I'm acquiring it."

As usual, Malfoy responded with his usual maturity. "Ugh! That's disgusting, Granger! Why on Earth would you want to acquire one of those nasty things?"

"Ouch!" Hermione dropped the Chizpurfle back into the cauldron she was cleaning.

"It didn't work?" I asked.

"No, it worked," Hermione said, shaking her hand. "It just woke up from its acquiring-stupor and bit me."

Malfoy laughed. "You know, Granger, I wonder if you wanted to acquire a Chizpurfle because you feel kinship with it. After all, the two best known magical parasites are Chizpurfles and Mudbloods."

Hermione and I stared at him. We had no idea what the word 'Mudblood' meant or how it related to Hermione, though obviously it wasn't a term of endearment. The word and the statement preceding it made me feel deeply uncomfortable, even without knowing what exactly he was talking about.

In the face of our silence, Malfoy's smile gradually faded. "I… It's a joke. The Slytherins would think it's really funny and… um…" His brow furrowed. "Well, if you'd grown up in our world, you'd get it."

He returned his attention to scrubbing the cauldrons. Uncertain of how else to respond, Hermione and I did the same. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Malfoy scoop up one of the Chizpurfles and acquire it.

By the time we were done cleaning the cauldrons with the Chizpurfle-killing potion, all four of us had acquired one of the tiny creatures (calling them parasites after Malfoy's 'joke' had left a squirming feeling in my gut) and Snape had returned to check on our progress. He waited for us to finish.

"Well done. All of the Chizpurfles appear to be exterminated," he said. "But it appears I still have an hour or so of your time. Let's move on to your actual assignments."

He walked over to one of the storage cabinets along the wall and extracted several folded pieces of blue cloth. He handed one to each of us. I unfolded mine, revealing something that looked like a set of wizard robes crossed with a bee-keeper's suit, along with a set of bulky gloves covered in yellow padding.

"What is this?" I asked.

"That is what you will be wearing to protect yourself from this animal," Snape said. He brought a large glass terrarium out of the cabinet and set it on one of the desks.

Inside appeared to be about twenty of the strangest bugs I'd ever seen. They were about half-an-inch long, sapphire blue, and shaped like radishes, with two wings growing out the top of its head, two large, disturbingly human eyes, six peg-like legs, and a long, thin stinger at the bottom of its body.

"Billywigs!" Hermione exclaimed. "I recognize them from _Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them!"_

"Bravo, Granger," Snape said, sounding less than impressed. "Dried Billywig stings are used in several potions. But if you are stung by a Billywig, you will suffer giddiness, followed by levitation. Stung too many times, and you will hover uncontrollably for days on end." Snape's eyes drifted towards me, and a smirk appeared on his face. "How unfortunate, if you were forced to complete your exams while floating on the ceiling…"

I glared at him.

"But the suits will protect us, won't they?" Hermione asked nervously.

"Yes, if you are not so big of dunderheads that you do not put the suits on properly," Snape said. "The gloves are also what you will use to collect the stings. Billywigs fly so fast that they cannot be seen, until they sting you. The Billywigs will be attracted to the gloves and their stings will become stuck in the padding. I expect twenty stings for twenty Billywigs."

He left the room and we put on in our protective suits. Hermione had to show Neville how to do it and remind him to tuck his sleeves into the gloves.

"Get ready," Hermione said.

I nodded, careful not to dislodge my netted hat. Hermione removed the lid of the terrarium. In less than a second, all of the Billywigs had completely vanished.

"Blimey!" I exclaimed. "They _are_ fast!"

"No, really? I couldn't tell," Malfoy said. "Oh! I've got one!"

One of the Billywigs was indeed trying to sting Malfoy's glove. After a few seconds, it took off again—or, at least it tried to. It seemed that without its stinger, the Billywig was no longer aerodynamic enough to fly. Still spinning wildly, it tumbled weightlessly to the floor.

"We should try acquiring them," I said. "Look at how fast they go! And with those eyes, they've got to be able to see well—we could use them to spy."

"How do you plan on acquiring one?" Malfoy asked. "Or did you forget the part where they're 'too fast to see'?"

"We can acquire them once they've lost their stingers," I said. "See that one? They can't fly without them."

"But then _we _won't be able to fly," Malfoy said.

"No, that's not how it works," Hermione said. "We're acquiring their DNA, so when we morph into them we'll be full Billywigs, stingers and all."

"That doesn't make any sense," Malfoy said irritably. "Those Billywigs don't have stingers anymore."

"It makes perfect sense," Hermione said. "If you knew anything about science and biology, anyway. 'Muggle stuff' can be useful sometimes, if you've forgotten that Muggles invented things like trains and indoor plumbing that we use every day."

"We would have invented them eventually," Malfoy said. "It's just that there's no point in inventing something that's already been invented. Besides, our versions of trains and indoor plumbing and such are better because we use magic."

Hermione let out an exasperated sigh and seemed ready to launch into a long lecture about the Muggle world and its merits.

"Could we get back to the topic at hand?" I asked. "Let's acquire the Billywigs."

"But we won't have stingers when we morph!" Malfoy said. "Why isn't anyone listening to me?"

"Because you're wrong," Hermione said matter-of-factly.

Malfoy glared at her. "You are."

"Let's acquire the Billywigs," I said again. "Then we'll see once and for all when we try to morph."

"But I'm right!" Hermione said desperately. "I know I am!"

"I know," I said. "But obviously Malfoy isn't going to stop talking about it any other way."

"Who says I'm going to stop talking about it now?" Malfoy asked. "You greatly underestimate my ability to not stop talking."

Over the next several minutes, the Billywigs continued to sting our gloves and drop to the floor. We kept a count of how many stings each of us had until finally they added up to twenty.

I removed my gloves and knelt down. I picked up one of the Billywigs, which started spinning around in my hand like an out-of-control top. I had to cup my other hand over it to keep the strange insect from falling. Quickly, I acquired it and set it back down with the others. Hermione, Malfoy and Neville all did the same.

A moment later, Snape returned. He waved his wand. All of the Billywigs levitated off of the ground and floated back inside their terrarium.

"Now let's see if you've missed any," Snape said. While we took off our protective suits, he extracted all of the stings from our gloves into a small clay jar, counting them as he went. "Hm. All twenty. Well done. Now to your final task for the evening."

He put the terrarium and the stingers back in the cabinet before extracting a strange glass jar from his robes. Coiled around each other inside the jar were four pale grey, red-eyed snakes.

"Ashwinders," he said. "Potter, Granger, you might not know what they are. An Ashwinder—"

"An Ashwinder is a serpent that is created from the remains of any magical fire that is allowed to burn unchecked," Hermione recited. "They rise from the embers of the dying fire and slither off into a dark corner to lay their eggs, leaving an ashy trail behind. Ashwinders only live for an hour and collapse into dust once they've laid their eggs, which are red and give off an intense heat that can completely burn down a building in minutes. If preserved with a Freezing Charm, Ashwinder eggs can be used in Love Potion or eaten whole to cure ague."

Snape sighed. "Well done, Granger. But if I had wanted to give a copy of _Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them_ detention, I would have done so."

"Read a book, have you, Granger?" Malfoy asked quietly. "I had no idea."

"Shut up, Malfoy," I hissed.

"Do not talk while I am talking, Potter," Snape sneered.

"But Malfoy was—"

"Whatever you believe Malfoy was doing is of no concern to me," Snape said. "May I continue, or do you have other plans for how to spend your detention?"

"No, Professor," I snarled through clenched teeth. Malfoy stuck his tongue out at me from behind Snape's back.

"Good. Now, you can see that I've already done the first step by creating the Ashwinders," Snape said. "You will release them. There is an Ashwinder for each of you to watch. You must watch them to see where they lay their eggs. Then you will place the eggs inside this heat-resistant jar. Ashwinder eggs are most potent when freshly frozen, so you must only freeze the eggs if they are about to catch fire—I highly recommend that you do not let them get to that point."

He gave Malfoy the jar, returned our wands, and gave us each a set of dragon-hide gloves before leaving.

"This is more like it," Malfoy said, smiling at the snakes inside the jar. "I love snakes. Shall we let them loose?"

Neville let out a nervous little whimper. "What if I don't find my snake's eggs in time? I'm going to burn down the school!"

"I'll help you," Hermione said.

Malfoy unscrewed the top of the jar and set it sideways on the ground. "There you are. Scoot!"

A chorus of tiny voices came out of the jar. It was the snakes, all happily crying, _"Free, free, free!"_ As they slithered out and parted ways, their chanting changed to, _"Hide, hide, hide!" _and _"Eggs, eggs, eggs!"_

"Oh, no!" moaned Neville. His Ashwinder was, of course, headed right for Professor Snape's desk. Hermione and Neville attempted to corral their snakes together so it would be easier to keep track of them both.

Though Malfoy had an excited, curious glint in his eyes and looked almost two seconds away from trying to pick it up and play with it, he restrained himself to simply following his Ashwinder in silence.

"Hey, let's acquire them," he suggested after a moment.

"But they only live for an hour," Hermione said, slightly breathless from chasing after her Ashwinder. "That halves our morphing time."

"So?" Malfoy said. With that compelling argument, he crouched down and touched the Ashwinder.

My Ashwinder seemed to have a goal in mind, heading towards the storeroom we'd forgotten to close. I followed it in, only to find the Ashwinder peering almost sternly at me.

"_Why follow me?"_ it asked.

"_Sorry," _I said. _"Am I bothering you?"_

"_Yes,"_ said the Ashwinder. _"I lay eggs, no follow me."_

"_I'm sorry, but I've got to follow you," _I said.

"_No eat eggs!"_ it shouted. Quick as a flash, it slithered between my legs and back into the main classroom.

As I chased after it, I saw Malfoy lying on his belly scooping bright red eggs out from underneath one of the student desks, which was already starting to smolder from the heat. Hermione was levitating a case of potions ingredients away from the wall as Neville wailed, "They can't lay their eggs back there! The cabinets are going to catch fire! Snape is going to kill us!"

I caught up to the Ashwinder and managed to touch it, lulling it into an acquiring stupor. It recovered a few seconds later and slithered, to my horror, _inside _one of the student desks.

I knelt in front of the desk and peered inside the storage compartment. Amazingly, the Ashwinder had already laid four eggs and curled itself protectively around them. It peered up at me with eyes that were already beginning to dull.

"_No eat eggs…" _it pleaded. The color faded from its eyes, its head lay weakly down, and in seconds it dissolved into nothing more than dust.

For several seconds, I could only stare at the small pile of dust that had once been the Ashwinder. Then smoke started to rise from beneath the eggs. I had to get the jar and put the eggs away, but… it didn't feel right. Maybe nothing was going to eat the eggs, as the Ashwinder had feared, but they were still going to be used for potions, never allowed a chance at life.

I'm not sure why it bothered me so much. But sympathy for the dead Ashwinder compelled me to do something. I scooped up all of the eggs in one hand, and then turned my dragon-hide glove inside out around them. The glove now formed a sort of bag. The dragon-hide was a sufficiently heat-resistant material to keep the eggs from setting anything on fire. I took off the other glove and stuffed it inside with the eggs, providing a protective covering and some cushion in case the eggs got bumped around. Then I carefully stuffed the whole bundle into my robe pocket. I could feel warmth coming off of them, but the dragon-hide protected me from any burn.

Fearing that I was beginning to turn into Hagrid, I stood up and rejoined the others. Hermione and Neville had acquired their Ashwinders and were collecting the eggs inside the jar.

"Where are your eggs?" Malfoy asked.

"Er—the snake died before it could lay any eggs," I lied.

Malfoy laughed. "Ooh, Professor Snape's going to be angry."

"It's not Harry's fault that his Ashwinder didn't lay any eggs," Hermione said. "Let's each claim one of our eggs was laid by Harry's Ashwinder. That'll at least give him three."

"Oh, alright," Malfoy said. "Why must you ruin my entertainment?"

When Snape returned for the last time, he looked as if he were half expecting the classroom to be on fire. "You've done better than I had expected. Hm, I thought there would be more eggs than this."

"Well, that's all there were," Hermione said.

Snape didn't seem happy, but he screwed the top back onto the jar and placed it in the supply closet. "Very well. That's all for tonight. Be here at six-thirty next week—on time if you can manage it, Potter."

I kept quiet this time and left as quickly as I could once he let us go. Snape shut the door loudly behind us.

Hermione, Neville and I walked down the corridor that led to the stairs. After a little while, I realized to my surprise that Malfoy was walking a few paces behind us.

"Slytherin dormitories aren't this way," I said. "Why are you following us?"

"_Becaaauuuse," _Malfoy said in a sing-song voice, "I want to see what you do with those Ashwinder eggs you stole."

My eyes widened.

"What are you talking about?" Hermione asked. "Harry's Ashwinder didn't lay any eggs."

"Oh, please," Malfoy said. "Judging by that bulge in his robes, either he stole some eggs or he was _very_ happy to see Professor Snape."

"You don't have to be crude," Hermione said with a grimace. She turned to face me. "And _you!_ What exactly are you planning on doing with those eggs? Do you have any idea what will happen if you get caught with them? You'll be expelled! And with good reason! If they start a fire, we'll be hip-deep in Ashwinders within days! The whole school will be burned to the ground!"

"I'm just going to keep them safe until I find a place to let them go, far away from the school," I said.

"And where would that be?" Hermione asked. "Your aunt and uncle's house? A forest somewhere? Don't you understand? All Ashwinders do is start fires and make baby Ashwinders. They don't _do _anything else. They're dangerous pests."

"I don't care," I said. "I'm going to figure out something to do with them, but for now I've just got to keep them safe. Unless you plan on telling anyone that I've got them."

"_I _won't," Malfoy said eagerly. "How many do you have?"

"Four," I said. I looked at Hermione and Neville. "Well? Are you going to turn me in?"

"No," Neville said.

Hermione sighed. "Alright, Harry, I won't tell anyone either. But I'm certain this isn't a good idea."

I let out a breath of relief.

"At least the eggs will stay dormant until they're exposed to fire," Hermione said. "Just keep them from igniting anything and away from open flames."

"Thanks," I said. "Since we've got tomorrow night free, let's start looking for…" I lowered my voice, "the Yeerk Pool again."

"Alright," Hermione said. Malfoy and Neville nodded their agreement.

"So, are you going to name any of the Ashwinders after me?" Malfoy asked as we parted ways.

"Absolutely not," I said.

"Your loss," Malfoy said with a shrug.

Hermione, Neville and I returned to Gryffindor tower. Exhausted from staying up all of the previous night, I decided to turn in even though most of the Gryffindors were still awake.

"How was detention?" Ron asked as I passed through the common room.

"Snape was as horrible as usual," I said. I thought of the Ashwinder eggs, the new morphs we'd acquired, and the time we got to spend together without thinking about the Yeerks or Elfangor. A smile I couldn't stop formed on my face. "The rest of it was alright, as far as detentions go."

Ron shook his head. "Some people get all the luck. Good night."

"Good night."

I climbed up to my dorm and hid the Ashwinder eggs (still safe in their dragon-hide cocoon) inside my wardrobe. It would do for the moment, until I found some place to keep them.

Once I was lying in bed, I couldn't help but think about what Malfoy and I saw in the forest. Voldemort. It had to be him. I wondered why it was only now that I had seen him. I'd been at Hogwarts all year. Surely he was here to finish me off once and for all? The Boy-Who-Lived, the infant who somehow defeated Voldemort all those years ago. Perhaps he was waiting until he gathered enough strength to face me—though it wouldn't take much strength to fight me, if the encounter in the forest was any indication. I wouldn't be able to fight back. He might have even killed me then, if it weren't for…

Huh. Malfoy saved my life, didn't he?

Somehow I hadn't realized it at the time. Wow. That was pretty decent of him, even if he's an obnoxious git most of the time.

Bringing my focus back to Voldemort, I wondered again why he hadn't killed me off yet. If he was already powerful enough to kill a unicorn and hurt me with just a look, then he couldn't just be trying to gain strength. Maybe he was waiting for something, or trying to figure something out—

I stared up at the ceiling, eyes wide with shock. Of course. It seemed so obvious. There was something else at Hogwarts that Voldemort wanted. Something with the power to restore him completely.

The Philosopher's Stone.

The stone was being carefully guarded, but if Voldemort was half as clever as people made him out to be, I knew he'd find a way. It was only a matter of time.

But then I remembered something that brought me comfort. The only man that Voldemort feared was Headmaster Dumbledore. The stone would be safe as long as the powerful, mysterious, and quite unusual headmaster was at Hogwarts. In his weakened state, Voldemort wouldn't dare make a move against the school if there was a possibility he would have to face Dumbledore.

With that in mind, I turned over in bed, closed my eyes, and promptly fell into blissful and much-needed sleep.


	9. Chapter 9

Omg I'm actually posting a thing on time! Everyone try to stay calm!

Thank you for reading. As always, comments are very appreciated, so let me know what you think. :)

* * *

**Chapter Nine**

**T**he second day of exams was at least somewhat better than the first after finally getting some rest. The heat, the stress, and the pain blooming out from my scar were still troublesome, but at least I could remember a bit more and stop myself from falling asleep in class.

Our Herbology practical was fairly simple and straightforward. All we had to do was re-plant the Flitterblooms we'd been growing during the last few months from their pots to the garden. I was glad to have something uncomplicated to focus on for at least a little while. Professor Sprout asked me if I'd like to take a cutting home, but knowing that my aunt and uncle would never allow me to keep a magical plant in the house, I had to decline.

That night, Hermione, Neville, Malfoy, and I searched the Forbidden Forest again for the Yeerk Pool and found nothing. Every time I rounded a tree I expected Voldemort to suddenly reappear—but to my relief, he never did. We never saw him, and if he saw us, he chose not to reveal himself.

Wednesday night we had to take our Astronomy practical, forestalling any chance we might have had to continue searching. One at a time, we were called up to the Astronomy tower and had to locate the constellations and planets that Professor Sinestra named.

As the week continued, I became more and more anxious that Voldemort would make his move at any second. I had to remind myself that he wouldn't dare try anything while Dumbledore was around. The more frustrating thing was that we still couldn't find the Yeerk Poll and we still had no idea who any of the Controllers were.

But I went to bed on Wednesday with one happy thought: that there was only one more day until we could prove once and for all that Ron wasn't a Controller.

We had written exams every day that week, which remained difficult for me. After Thursday's written exam was the Transfiguration practical, where we had to turn a mouse into a silver snuffbox. There weren't any whiskers on my final snuffbox, though there was a tiny pair of silver ears that got me graded down.

Afterwards, Hermione asked me if she could use Hedwig to send a letter to her parents. Once we asked Neville to keep an eye on Ron, I walked with Hermione to the owlery. She was babbling excitedly about the exams and reviewing her answers, looking for mistakes.

"I don't think I forgot anything on my Charms exam, but I am a bit worried about my Transfiguration exam, I think I might have misunderstood one of the questions, and I think I mixed up two of the answers," Hermione said nervously. "I've just been so tired and thinking about other things. I'll just have to do that much better on the potions exams tomorrow, I suppose—"

"Hermione," I said. "Calm down, you're going to do just fine. Trust me, you could do a lot worse. I'll be lucky if I don't fail everything."

I told her about all of the trouble I was having with my exams as we climbed up the stairs of the owlery. We found Hedwig in her customary spot.

"Hello Hedwig," I said softly. I'd gained a new appreciation for owl hearing from personal experience and tried to keep my voice down around her ever since. "Could you take this letter to Hermione's parents for me?"

I put the letter in Hedwig's beak and petted her head. She stretched her wings before flying out of the owlery. Hermione and I watched as she flew away.

"I wonder how they do that," I asked suddenly.

"What?"

"You know, find people, deliver letters to them," I said. "She doesn't know where your parents live after all."

"I wrote their address on the envelope," Hermione said.

"But it's not like she can ask for directions," I said. "And she can't read. At least I don't think so."

Hermione shrugged. "It must be something to do with magic."

"Like they're magically able to locate people?" I asked. Hermione nodded. We continued to watch Hedwig until she had flown out of eyesight

It finally hit me like a Bludger to the head. I whipped around to stare at Hermione. "That's it! I can't believe we didn't realize it before!"

"What?" Hermione asked. She thought about it for a second, and seemed to come to the same realization that I had. "You mean—we can use our owl morphs to find the Yeerk Pool? But why haven't we been able to find it until now?"

"We didn't have a letter!" I said. "It must only work if the owl is trying to deliver something!"

Hermione considered that. "Maybe… It could work, couldn't it? We could actually find the Yeerk Pool!"

"Come on, we've got to tell the others!" We ran all the way down the stairs and back across the grounds to the main castle.

After letting Neville know what we would be doing, we found Malfoy studying in the library with Crabbe and Goyle.

"No, no, no," he was saying. "We've been over this—Akhenaton died in 1363 BC, not 1633 _AD_. Honestly, could you at least try to pay attention? And curved ivory wands were used by the Egyptians in the _second_ millennium, not the first."

"Sorry," said Goyle.

Crabbe spotted us first. "What are you doing here, Potter?"

"Malfoy, we need to talk to you," I said breathlessly.

Malfoy's eyebrows rose. "Alright. Crabbe, Goyle, you're doing alright here, aren't you?"

We left the library and went down one of the corridors. There was a tapestry on the wall that hid a spiral staircase. The staircase was a shortcut down to the second floor, but it would also serve our needs as a private place to talk. We stood close together in the gloom, tiered on three consecutive steps.

"What is it?" Malfoy asked. "What's going on? Have you found the Pool?"

"No," I said. "But we might have found a way to find it."

"We're going to use our owl morphs," Hermione said. "Owls can find anyone in the world to deliver mail, even if the person sending it doesn't know where they are, so we're going to write a false letter addressed to someone in the Yeerk Pool and use that ability to find its location."

Malfoy's eyes widened. "That's brilliant!"

"Do you think it will work?" I asked.

"I can't think of any reason why it wouldn't," Malfoy said. That reassured me. Malfoy was raised in the wizarding world, after all. He'd know more about how owl post worked than me or Hermione. "Do you have any parchment to write the letter?"

Hermione reached into her bag and pulled out a parchment and quill. "What shall we write?"

"We're not actually going to deliver it," I said. "We've just got to put what we're looking for on the outside.

Despite my words, Malfoy wrote a brief message on the inside. A thoughtful expression appeared on his face before he signed it with a grin. Then he folded the parchment into a square and wrote an address on the side, which he showed to us to check for our approval:

_To - any Controller_

_Yeerk Pool_

_Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry_

_Hogsmeade, Scotland_

"Right, that should work," Hermione said with a nod.

We quickly went outside and searched for a good place to hide while we morphed. Deciding on the far side of the Quidditch pitch, which was currently empty, we ran across the grounds until we were in the hiding spot.

"Who wants to be our delivery owl?" Malfoy asked.

"I'll do it," I said. I waved my wand over my clothes. _"Gearwe Awendendylic!"_

"There's no one around," Hermione said, peeking around the edge of the Quidditch pitch.

I closed my eyes and morphed into Hedwig. Within half a minute, I had finished the transformation. [Okay, give me the letter.]

Malfoy held out the letter, and I snatched it with my beak. It was a little unusual trying to take off while carrying something in my mouth, but once again the owl's instincts helped make up for my lack of experience. I soared up over the Quidditch pitch.

"We'll be along in a couple seconds!" Hermione called.

I flew higher, looking forward to finding the Yeerk Pool at last. Soaring over the lake, I thought I would be compelled to fly towards the Forbidden Forest. But something… something seemed to be calling me. Something in the back of my mind, like the owl's instincts. I carefully tried to focus on that call.

Suddenly, the world seemed to be lit up with glowing lines. I couldn't exactly see them, but I could feel them. It felt like they were laying across the ground below, marking out several different paths. And the brightest… But that couldn't be right. The brightest one would lead me right back to the school. There had to be some kind of mistake…

I felt a pull. The owl's instincts were threatening to take over. It had to follow that path. That path was what it was meant for, what it lived for. The siren call of that invisible magic line was irresistible. I found myself flying in the direction it told me without conscious thought.

Shaking my head, I finally regained control of my mind. [Hermione, Malfoy, it's telling me to go back to the school. Don't morph; I think we have to go inside and you've got to come open doors for me.]

As I crossed the lake again, I could see two tiny figures race across the grounds from the Quidditch Pitch. I followed the path from the boathouse up the cliffs that faced the lake. Swooping through one of the large arched gateways leading to the paved courtyard, I found I could go no farther without help, so I perched on the railing of the upper walkway to wait for the others.

The paved courtyard was a popular hang-out for the Slytherin students, so I usually avoided it. A large group of older students were sitting together, apparently relaxing after the day's exams. Smaller clusters of younger students were also scattered about. I eavesdropped on some of their conversations only to find that it was actually pretty mundane and wouldn't have been unusual to hear in the Gryffindor common room. Disappointed by the lack of juicy gossip, I returned my attention to the entrance.

At long last, Hermione and Malfoy appeared. They spotted me on my perch and started to cross the courtyard.

"Hello, Malfoy!" called one of the Slytherin second years, named Artemus Pike. He smirked at Hermione. "So, what's she doing here? Got yourself a little Mudblood girlfriend, have you?"

"Ugh! Don't be disgusting, Pike," Malfoy sneered. "I'd never and you know it."

"You're such a know-it-all, Granger, I'd think you'd know that we don't like it when Gryffindors come here acting like they own the place," said Pansy Parkinson, a girl in our year. "But I guess going where you don't belong is what Muggleborns do best, isn't it?"

"The school doesn't belong to you," Hermione said, standing up proudly even though there was a slight quiver to her voice. "I don't need your permission to be here."

By then, the older Slytherin students had noticed the confrontation and a few had wandered over.

"Hello, dear, you must be lost," one of the girls said, her voice sickly sweet with mocking kindness. "Little Gryffindor girls don't belong here."

"What did you bring _her_ here for, Malfoy?" asked one of the boys, shoving Malfoy's shoulder slightly, though he kept his expression friendly. "Got a thing for Gryffindors, eh?"

"Yeah, I saw you eating breakfast with them the other day," said a second boy. "Is it fun, being the Gryffindors' pet Slytherin?"

"I'm not anyone's pet, least of all Granger's," Malfoy said disdainfully. "Now leave us alone. We're just passing through on our way to—to meet Professor Snape."

"Really? Why didn't you go the other way, then?" The first boy sneered.

"Because this way was closer," Malfoy said. "And I don't have to explain myself to half-blood trash like you, anyway."

The boy scowled as some of the crowd started to laugh. Malfoy shoved past the other Slytherins, dragging Hermione along by the sleeve of her robes.

Pike chuckled. "Wonder how you'll explain to Lucius Malfoy that his son turned out to be a Muggle-lover."

Malfoy whirled around and drew his wand. _"Retrogenus!"_

Pike let out a startled shout and toppled to the ground, accompanied by gales of laughter from those around him. It appeared that he had been hit with an accomplished knee-reversing hex.

"Anyone else wants to call me a Muggle-lover, I'll do much worse to you!" Malfoy shouted. He led Hermione the rest of the way to the stone veranda I was perched on. I swooped down after them, landing on Malfoy's shoulder.

Behind me, I could hear someone shout, "Why don't you go home, Muggle!"

[Are you alright, Hermione?] I asked.

"Yes, I'm fine," she said, though she sounded a bit subdued. She and Malfoy exchanged awkward glances before quickly looking away. "Where do we go now?"

[Right, through that doorway there,] I said. The doorway led to a long spiral staircase, which carried us underground.

"What does this mean?" Hermione asked as we walked down the steps. "The Yeerk Pool is under the school?"

"Impossible," Malfoy said. "We walk through here every day, someone in Slytherin would have noticed something by now. Maybe something's wrong with your tracking senses, Potter."

The spiral staircase led to a curved hallway with rough stone walls and round lanterns hanging from the ceiling. At the end of the hallway there was a door leading to a long corridor with several others branching off of it, all lined with torches. As we passed, Malfoy pointed out where each of the corridors went. This was far beyond anywhere I'd ever gone in the dungeons, but that strange line continued to pull me in the direction I had to go.

Eventually, we passed through an arched doorway into a round room with a massive curved staircase. We went to the center of the room and looked up to see that the staircase seemed to go on forever. Though where we stood was roughly carved from slightly damp stone, we could see that as it went higher, the simple stone incline changed to marble steps and the dank walls faded into to smooth grey concrete.

[Where does this go?] I asked

"To the sixth floor, beneath the north tower," Malfoy said. "The third-years and up use it as a shortcut to and from the Divination classroom."

"Where does that corridor go?" Hermione asked. She was pointing to another archway on our left. I could hear water flowing from somewhere beyond it.

"The natural cave system beneath the school," Malfoy said. "At the end there's another staircase that leads up to the east corner of the Transfiguration courtyard. But there's nothing down there but some rocks and torches, I've walked through there more times this year than you could count."

[But the owl is telling me that we have to go down there,] I said.

Malfoy sighed. "We're not going to find anything."

"Come on, this is the best lead we've gotten," Hermione said.

"Alright, alright," Malfoy said. He led the way down into the cave. It was a narrow tunnel that sloped down from the staircase tower and curved to the left. We followed the tunnel as it snaked through the rock and soil, Hermione and Malfoy's footsteps echoing all around us.

The sound of flowing water got louder, until the tunnel widened into a long cavern where stalactites (or were they stalagmites? I always get them mixed up) hung from the ceiling. The path stayed to the left of the cavern and continued out of sight as the tunnel narrowed once more. To the right of the walkway was a drop off cordoned off by a metal safety railing. The sound was coming from there. Hermione walked over and Malfoy followed. A few feet below the walkway, there was a narrow river that flowed so fast there was a light spray rising from it.

"Where is that river coming from?" Hermione asked. "The lake?"

"No, it's actually flowing to it," Malfoy said, looking pleased to have found something he knew that Hermione did not. "I think it comes from a spring in the mountains to the north. That's where the school gets its fresh water. This isn't far from the place where it drains out into the lake."

"How interesting," Hermione said, leaning over the railing to peer more closely at where the water entered the cavern.

"In fact, the lake itself is more like reservoir, because water drains out of it continually— there's a large underground river that can actually be used to travel by magical boat from the ocean to the lake, though in recent history it's been blocked off with protective charms so that water and fish are all that can travel through it," Malfoy explained. "Hogwarts actually receives a lot of its magical energy from this river and the lake, because—"

"Jiang's Observation of Water, which states that any movement of a body of water generates magical energy, its strength determined by the water's mass, the amount of movement and the sum of its contaminants," Hermione quoted. "I remember reading that the school is powered by water in _Hogwarts, a History. _But I thought that was all the lake, I never realized that there was a river beneath the school."

"Of course you know about Jiang's Observation," Malfoy muttered sullenly. "Jiang Min was the first to argue that water—rather than fire—was the most magical element because of her Observation. In fact, Jiang's Observation is the foundation of all potion-making. We have a tapestry of her in the Slytherin dormitories."

"Well, from what I understand, fire—"

[Come on, I'm not here to watch you two talk about _water,]_ I said finally. [We've got to find the Yeerk Pool in case you've forgotten!]

"Er—sorry," Hermione said sheepishly.

[Just keep going down the tunnel,] I said.

We continued down the path as the tunnel around us narrowed. There was a curve to the right, followed by a tight curve to the left.

"We're almost to the staircase," Malfoy said. "I told you there wasn't any—"

The invisible line suddenly tugged in the opposite direction.

[Wait, stop!] I said.

"What?" Malfoy asked, freezing in place. "What's wrong?"

[Turn around, walk back the way we came,] I said.

Slowly, Malfoy and Hermione did as instructed.

[There! Stop!] I said. The tug was very powerful now. We were close. But it was leading me somewhere that didn't appear to exist—all I faced was a solid stone wall, the same as any other section of the tunnel.

"There's nothing there," Hermione said.

[Things in the wizarding world aren't always how they seem,] I said.

Malfoy raised his hands, palms facing out, and took a few slow steps towards the wall. His hands faded through the rock. With another step, he and I had passed through the illusion.

We were standing on a metal platform in a small, dark cavern. Below the grate of the platform I could see a short waterfall. Ahead of us, the tunnel continued out of sight.

Hermione emerged through the illusion behind us a second later. As it was too difficult for human eyes to see clearly in the darkness, she drew her wand. _"Flammula Ceruleus!"_

Her signature bluebell flames radiated from her wand and hovered around us in the air, giving enough light for her and Malfoy to see.

"Oh my God," Malfoy breathed. "This… this has been here the whole time. I've been walking right by it all year."

"What should we do?" Hermione asked.

I considered it for a few minutes. Deeper in the tunnel I could faintly hear… splashing. Something humming. Growls. [We'll leave this for now. We know where it is, that's the important thing. Tonight will be the end of the three days—we'll tell Ron. About everything. Then we can come back, all five of us.]

"Alright," Malfoy said. "Now let's get out of here before somebody comes by."

We walked back through the illusion and continued down the tunnel until we reached a long spiral staircase. At the top, there was a small chamber that led to the Transfiguration courtyard.

"It's all clear," Hermione said.

I swooped down from Malfoy's shoulder and de-morphed. I realized that I was still carrying the letter in my mouth. On a whim I opened it up to see what Malfoy had written inside.

"'Attention Alien Slugs: This is a notice of eviction. Please remove yourself from this planet immediately. Failure to comply will result in a severe thrashing. Signed, the Animorphs'," I read, laughing. "Animorphs? Who are they?"

"They're us, genius," said Malfoy, though he looked a bit self-conscious about it. "Animal morphers—Animorphs. Makes sense, I thought."

"That's the dumbest name I ever heard," I said. Malfoy looked a bit stung at first, but he quickly realized that I was teasing him and kicked me in the shin.

As I tore up the letter and stuffed the pieces in my pocket, planning to throw them in the common room fire later, I couldn't help but smile. Everything was finally starting to work out.


	10. Chapter 10

As always, comments are appreciated. Thanks for reading!

* * *

**Chapter Ten**

**H**ermione, Malfoy and I went upstairs. Malfoy intended to return to the library to help Crabbe and Goyle study some more, while Hermione and I wanted to go to Gryffindor tower and let Neville know what we had discovered.

I couldn't wait to finally tell Ron everything. No more lies, no more secrets. The first new addition to the team, hopefully the first of many. We could do this. We could watch people for three days, tell them about the invasion, and make them one of us. Soon we'd have an army powerful enough to defeat the Yeerks. We'd avenge Elfangor, and we'd save the Earth. I was sure of it.

I was pulled out of my thoughts by the sight of Neville running down the corridor ahead, huffing and puffing. He spotted us and ran our way.

"What's going on, Neville?" I asked.

He braced his hands against his thighs as he gasped for breath. "I'm so sorry!—I lost—I lost Ron, and I—looking for him everywhere, but I can't—"

I stared at him in stunned shock for a few seconds. "You _lost_ _him?"_

We relocated to the spiral staircase hidden behind the tapestry.

"I'm really sorry!" Neville panted. "He was in the library with Seamus and Dean one second, then the next time I looked up, they were all gone! It's been about twenty minutes, I think."

Threading my fingers through my hair, I fought back a scream of frustration. "Neville! Why can't you do anything right?"

Neville looked stricken. "I… I'm sorry, I didn't mean to…"

I turned to the others. Hermione's expression was disappointed, Malfoy's cold and serious. "Look, it's almost been three days anyway," I insisted. "We've been watching him all this time—Malfoy, you even told me that you don't really think he's a Controller."

"I know, but… Potter," Malfoy said with a sigh. "Twenty minutes is more than enough time for him to have gone to the Yeerk Pool if that's where he went."

"But we were down there!" I shouted. "We would have seen him!"

"Twenty minutes ago, we were still in the paved courtyard," Malfoy said. "He might have even been inside the Yeerk Pool when we found it. We didn't go any further than the entrance— for all we know, he was there."

"Ron isn't a Controller!" I shouted.

"Harry…" Hermione put her hand on my arm. "I know it's hard. He's my friend, too. But it's not just our lives at stake. It's the whole world. We're the only ones who can fight. If the Yeerks find out about us, about who we are, then… it'll be over. We can't afford to take any more risks than we have to."

I glared down at the stair beneath my feet.

"There's another week until the end of term," Hermione said. "There's plenty of time to find out for sure. Okay?"

"Fine, I won't tell him anything," I grumbled. "Well, if it's going to be _another_ three days until we can tell Ron, then there's no use waiting to investigate the Yeerk Pool. I say we go back to the caves, use our Billywig morphs, and see what exactly is in there."

"Agreed," Malfoy said. Hermione nodded.

"Neville, you might as well come along," I said, "since you can't be trusted to keep an eye on Ron anyway."

Neville winced.

"That's enough, Harry," Hermione said sternly. "Leave him alone."

"I—fine, whatever, I'm sorry," I said quickly. "Come on. We'll go to the fifth floor and use the staircase shortcut you pointed out earlier, Malfoy."

With everything decided, we emerged through the tapestry and headed for the main stairwell.

"Don't mind him, Potter's just being a big baby," I heard Malfoy tell Neville behind me. "Crabbe and Goyle aren't on the team but you don't see me whining about it. Besides, it's not your fault you're utterly incompetent."

"He is not incompetent!" Hermione said. "He's good at… um… Herbology! That's an important skill to have, you know."

Malfoy let out a bark of laughter. "Oh, I see! If we ever need to send the Yeerks a bouquet of honking daffodils, we know just the man to call."

Once we reached the large spiral staircase, we checked around to make sure the area was clear.

"From up here, we'll be able to see anyone coming from a ways off," Malfoy said, peering over the railing. Hermione stood at the entrance to the stairwell to keep an eye out for anyone coming down the corridor.

"I'll morph first," I said.

"No one's coming," Hermione said. "Go ahead."

I cast the spell over my clothes and began focusing on my Billywig morph. The changes were sudden. First, I shrank. The floor zoomed up at me as if I had just stumbled or tripped. Then two new appendages shot out of my ribcage. Something started to grow from the top of my head—the Billywig's helicopter-like wings. I thought I must have been an amusing sight, less than a foot tall and shrinking with four arms and wings growing out of my head.

My skin started to turn blue and hard. My arms and legs shrank until they were little more than stubby black pegs. I lost my balance and fell forward onto my six new Billywig legs. My head and chest sort of fused together into a single piece, making it impossible to turn my head. As for my backside… well, the less said about what was happening to my backside, the better.

"I told you he'd still haave hiis stiiingeer wheeen heee mooorpheeeed," Hermione said. Her voice and movements got slower and slower—or more accurately, my perception had become much faster.

Malfoy's eyes rolled in slow motion. "Weeeell, dooooon't _yooouuu _aaaalllwaaaayssss haaaaaaave toooo beeeeee Liiiittllllllle Miiiiisssssss Knooooooow-iiiiiiiiiiiiiiit-aaaaaaaaaaaaall."

[I think I'm done morphing,] I said.

Hermione, Malfoy and Neville all slowly looked at me in confusion.

"Diiiiiiiiiiiiiid yoooooooouuuu saaaaaaaaaaay sooooooooomethiiiiiiiiiiiiiiing, Haaaaaaaaarrrrrrry?" Neville asked.

They couldn't understand me because I was too fast, I realized. Trying to elongate my words by lingering over them in my thoughts, I said, [Yoooooooooouuu threeeeeee mooooooooorrrrrrph nooooooooowwwwww.]

As they morphed one by one, I decided to try flying. My wings spun, slowly at first, then so fast that they were a blur even to my perception. Using the Billywig's instincts, I was able to take off.

My body was spinning so fast that I had expected flying as a Billywig would be incredibly dizzying. But to my surprise, my vision was steady and only faced one direction. I realized that my eyes were only taking a still image once every rotation of my body, and I was spinning so fast that it was able to form a steady moving image, like a film reel or a flip-book. The direction I was looking in could be changed through tiny increases or decreases to the speed of my rotation.

The stinger at the end of my body was connected to a few muscles, which I could move different ways to change direction in flight, much like the rudder of a boat. Speed, of course, could be controlled by how fast I spun my wings.

After I had made several loops around the top of the staircase chamber, I was finally joined by another Billywig, then another, then another.

[Now _this_ is more like flying on a broomstick,] Malfoy said. [Maneuverability, excitement, death-defying speed—I like it!]

[Speak for yourself,] Hermione moaned. [I think I'll get motion-sickness after too much of this.]

[It's all in your head, Hermione,] I told her. [Billywigs don't get motion-sickness.]

We flew out to the center of the room and quickly swerved down, diving down, down, down, the staircase swirling around us. The windows vanished, marble turned to stone, and we swerved again, heading through the arch into the caves. The fire blooming up from the torches moved in slow-motion.

[What is this place?] Neville asked.

Malfoy and Hermione took the time to tell him as we made our way through the tunnel, winding serpentine beneath the school. Within a few minutes, we had passed through the illusion hiding the Yeerk Pool entrance.

At the end of the metal walkway Hermione and Malfoy had been standing on just a few minutes ago, another tunnel continued into the rock before sloping down and to the left. We followed the tunnel, flying by a small torch, until the tunnel straightened out. Ahead of us, the path went down at a much steeper angle—large steps had even been carved into the floor to ease the climb.

As we continued down, the light from the torch faded behind us, only to be replaced by a stark white light that definitely didn't come from a flame. The stairway doubled back, heading down farther still. At the end of the second set of stairs was an electric light sticking out of a metal wall. We flew closer to inspect it.

[That's impossible,] Hermione said. [Electrical objects don't work at Hogwarts.]

[We must be a few hundred feet beneath the school, now,] Malfoy said. [Maybe the wards don't extend this far underground.]

[Come on, let's keep going,] I said. The tunnel leveled out and turned to the right, forming an obviously man-made corridor lined with steel on all sides, lit up with more electric lights. At the end there appeared to be a large cavern.

We flew out into the cavern—and what we saw made us all pause. The cavern opened up below us into a round chamber about one-hundred feet in diameter. A set of stairs curled down from the corridor to the floor of the chamber. In the very center there was a pool on a raised dais, about fifty feet in diameter, filled with a churning, toxic-looking sludge: The Yeerk Pool. There were several cages around the edge of the chamber. Most of them were empty.

A few were not.

[Oh my God…] Malfoy gasped.

It was one thing to know that the Yeerks were enslaving people. It was quite another to see it in action. A handful of students were in the cages, people whose faces I knew but whose names I didn't. Some cried. Some were screaming for help, others shouting threats at the Hork-Bajir Controllers who were patrolling the Yeerk Pool chamber.

Worst of all were the ones who did nothing, resigned to their fates.

[Malfoy, do you know who they are?] I asked.

[I… yes, some of them,] Malfoy said, regaining his calm. [Terrance Higgs, seventh-year Slytherin, Blaine Stebbins, fourth-year Hufflepuff; Sophia Fawcett, third-year Ravenclaw; Kenneth Towler and Patricia Stimpson, third-year Gryffindors… God, they're all Controllers.]

[Let's look around,] I said, hoping to distract us from the deeply unsettled feeling that had settled over us at the sight of the imprisoned hosts. Branching off from the main chamber were several smaller caves that housed (among other things) machinery, what looked like a communications bank with glowing semi-transparent screens, an armory full of futuristic looking weapons, and, to our disgust, a group of Taxxons eating flesh from some large creature that was no longer identifiable.

We found a security area, which looked similar to the communications bank we'd seen earlier, except the screens showed various points in the Yeerk Pool instead of the insides of what looked like space-ships. Taking a moment, we made a mental note of which places were being monitored and where there were blind-spots.

In yet another cave, I was surprised to find a large fireplace with a cube-shaped bin full of soot built into it. Two adult wizards wearing uniforms stood guard beside it.

[What is that?] I asked.

[I believe it's called a fireplace,] Malfoy said dryly.

[Thanks, Malfoy,] I grumbled.

[It must be for Floo travel,] Neville said.

[Flew travel?]

[F-L-O-O,] said Malfoy.

I sighed. [Thank you _again, _Malfoy.]

[We, magic people I mean, can magically travel from fireplace to fireplace,] Neville explained. [You throw some of that powder into the flames, say where you want to go, and then you're there.]

[So wizard Controllers from around the country can use Floo to instantly travel to the Yeerk Pool?] I asked.

[Potter, if they have the Pool connected to the Floo Network, the Yeerks must have someone in the Department of Magical Transportation,] Malfoy said gravely. [If they've got Controllers in that department, I wouldn't be surprised if there are others in the rest of the Ministry.]

[The Ministry? You mean the Ministry of Magic?] I asked. [I thought they were just supposed to keep the magical world hidden from Muggles.]

[That's the Ministry's ultimate purpose, but it also governs the British wizarding community,] Malfoy said. [Controllers in the Ministry… This is much bigger than I thought.]

[I think we've seen everything we need to see,] I said. [Let's get out of here.]

We re-entered the main chamber and my attention went back to the students huddled in the cages.

[Isn't… isn't there anything we can do for them?] Neville asked.

[Like what, if I might ask?] Malfoy said skeptically. [Do you think a Billywig can take on one of those blade-covered monsters?]

[We could sting the Hork-Bajir…] Neville suggested lamely.

[Then we wouldn't be able to fly away,] Hermione said. [We'd be seen when we tried to de-morph. And that's assuming that Billywig stings even work on Hork-Bajir.]

[It just doesn't feel right, leaving them there,] Neville said.

[It's not like we have any other options,] Malfoy said.

Though I was still annoyed with him, I couldn't help but sympathize with Neville a bit. I was feeling much the same way, looking down at the students' frightened faces. I led the way out of the Yeerk Pool, back up the tunnel and through the hidden entrance, through the caves and corridors, until we were in a remote part of the dungeons. Malfoy assured us that even the Slytherins had little reason to go to there, so we would be safe from any prying eyes.

One by one, we de-morphed until all four of us were standing together. Now that I had seen the Yeerk Pool, had seen the victims of the invasion with my own eyes…

I looked resolutely at the others. "We've seen the Yeerk Pool. Now we can plan our attack. We're going to save those students, and everyone else the Yeerks have taken."

"How?" Hermione asked. "Even if we free them now, the Yeerks would just find them later and take them over again."

"We're going to destroy the Yeerk Pool," I said with grim determination. "The Yeerks will die, and then those kids and everyone else they've taken will be free."

The others nodded their agreement, even Neville through his tears.

For the rest of the evening, we relocated to an old unused potions classroom to discuss possible attack plans. But despite the fact that there were a lot of ideas thrown around, there was always some fault in the plan that Hermione or Malfoy would point out, effectively shooting it down.

Even knowing that we were ending the day with much discovered and discussed, it still felt like we had accomplished very little. We parted ways and returned to our respective houses' dormitories.

"Hey, Harry!" It was Ron, jogging over from the other side of the common room. For a second, all of the frustration I had been experiencing over the last week boiled up on me, threatening to explode. Ron's eyes widened slightly. "Harry, are you alright?"

I rubbed my eyes and pushed away my anger. "Yeah, I'm alright."

"Exam stress getting to you, eh?" Ron said with a smile. "Well, there's only one day left, and then we won't have any more work until the end of the year!"

I smiled back. "I'll be glad when it's over. I've been having all sorts of trouble during mine. Hermione and I spent all afternoon studying."

"Really? Where were you?" Ron asked. "Seamus, Dean and I were in the library earlier. We didn't see you there."

"Well, she wanted to send a letter to her parents first, then—we went for a walk around the school," I lied. "To get some more fresh air before coming back inside, you know?"

"I guess we just missed each other," Ron said. "We met up with some other first-years for a game of Quidditch."

I supposed that Malfoy would tell me that Ron's story was a lie. Suddenly I just felt so _tired_ of it all.

"I think I'm going to go to bed," I told Ron.

"What?" Ron asked. "Come on, it's not even seven. I was hoping we could play some chess—I hardly got to talk to you outside of meals today."

My gut twisted with guilt, so I gave in and played a couple of games. Even if Ron hadn't been better than me, he probably would have won anyway because I had so much on my mind, distracting me from the games.

Eventually we decided to go to the dorms, where we joked around with Seamus and Dean for a few hours before turning in.

For yet another night, I lay awake listening to my dorm-mates fall asleep one by one.

It wasn't fair. We watched Ron for days without any sign he was a Controller. Even when he was away from us, we had been in the Yeerk Pool. Perhaps he could have gone to the Pool and left before we arrived, as Malfoy and Hermione had argued, but I strongly doubted it.

I'd had enough. I was going to tell him.

I sat up in bed and opened my curtains, facing Ron's bed. But I found myself hesitant to break the silence. The words were hard to form. What could I say? _Wake up, Ron, I just wanted to tell you something: Why have I been acting so strange lately, you ask? Oh, I met an alien six days ago and he told me about an invasion of space slugs—also, he gave me the ability to turn into any animal I touch._ No, that wouldn't sound crazy at all, would it?

A sudden tapping at one of the windows pulled me out of my thoughts. It was an owl.

An eagle owl.

I opened the window. "Malfoy," I hissed. "What are you doing here?"

[Preventing you from blowing our cover, apparently,] Malfoy said. [You were about to tell him, weren't you?]

"I wasn't, actually," I said. Technically, it wasn't a lie.

Malfoy flew inside and landed on my bed.

"Get out of here!" I whispered urgently.

[Can I see the Ashwinder eggs?] Malfoy asked.

"What? No! They're no different from the eggs you harvested anyhow," I said. "Go back to the Slytherin dormitories."

[You saw what happened in the paved courtyard,] Malfoy said. [I thought it would be best if I didn't stay in the dormitories tonight, if you understand my meaning.]

"Because of what you did to Pike?" I asked.

[No—or at least, not mostly. Pike might try to get back at me for that, I suppose,] Malfoy said. [Where do you keep the eggs?]

I sighed. "If I show you the eggs, will you leave?"

[Alright, alright,] Malfoy said. He de-morphed and sat down eagerly on my bed as I pulled the dragon-hide bag of eggs out of my wardrobe. I gave the bundle to Malfoy. He removed the top glove and peered inside. "Ooh—I can't even look very long, they put off so much heat. Like putting your face right next to a fire."

I looked around anxiously at the curtains of my dorm-mates four-posters, hoping desperately that they wouldn't wake up.

"Can I have one?" Malfoy asked.

"What?" I asked. "No! I'm not even supposed to have them. I'm going to find someplace to let them go, that's all."

"My birthday's coming up," Malfoy said.

"No."

"We could sneak one into our History of Magic exam tomorrow. Professor Binns probably wouldn't even notice his desk catch on fire."

"_No."_

"Fine," Malfoy said. "You still owe me a dragon, though."

"How on earth do you figure that?"

"I never got to see the dragon you and Granger snuck out of the school," Malfoy said. "Ergo, you owe me a dragon."

"You're barking," I said. "You do realize dragons can't be kept as pets?"

"I don't think that's true. The Gringott's goblins keep dragons to guard our money, after all. I think someone could keep a dragon as a pet, if they knew how to do it properly and had the space and money—which I do," Malfoy said. "I'm going to have a pet dragon someday."

I rolled my eyes. "Good luck, then. If I ever have my hands on a dragon again, I'll be sure to send it your way."

"So, why did you take the eggs, anyway?" Malfoy asked. "It's kind of pointless if you're not using them to commit arson of some kind. What are you going to do with them?"

I flopped back onto my bed, letting out a sigh. "I don't know. I did it on an impulse, I didn't think—"

"That's new," Malfoy said.

"Very funny, Malfoy," I said. I shut my eyes. "I don't know what to do with them. I don't know what to do with anything."

Silence. I felt more and more uncomfortable as I wondered why I had said that to Draco Malfoy of all people.

"Well…" Malfoy began slowly. "I imagine that's how all leaders feel. The good ones just act like they know what they're doing until they can think of something."

I opened my eyes. Malfoy was pointedly not looking at me, staring at the Ashwinder eggs in his hand.

"So," I said, turning my gaze to the ceiling, "since I told you I don't know what I'm doing… by your logic, does that make me a bad leader?"

"Oh, no," Malfoy said with a smirk. "See, _great_ leaders always have some cunning, handsome advisor behind the scenes they can share their problems with, who gives them all their best ideas."

I snorted. "If you don't say so yourself."

"It's just a suggestion," Malfoy said. "My family has a long history of being the power behind the throne. You couldn't ask for an advisor with better breeding."

"Really. Well, if literally everybody else on the planet dies, I'll consider you for the job."

"Settling for 'bad leader' after all, are you?" Malfoy asked mildly. "How sad."

I rolled my eyes. "You've seen the eggs, now will you leave? I'd like to get some sleep tonight."

"Fine, fine," Malfoy said. He set the eggs on my nightstand and cast the spell on his robes. I looked away as he morphed, watching the other beds for any sign of movement. When Malfoy was completely owl-shaped again, he perched on the window and turned his head back to look at me. [I can't believe I have to tell you this again, but don't say anything to Weasley.]

I threw my pillow at him. Malfoy shrieked and darted out the window.

Once Malfoy was gone, I checked on the Ashwinder eggs. There was no difference from the last time I'd seen them.

"What am I going to do with you?" I said with a sigh.

After putting the bundle back inside my wardrobe, I lay down in bed. I pulled the covers over my head, as if they would offer any kind of shield from my busy mind. What on Earth was I thinking when I took those eggs?

"Good for nothing but starting fires and making baby Ashwinders," I muttered to myself. Several seconds passed as I tried to sleep.

My eyes snapped open and I shot straight up out of bed.

I knew what to do.


	11. Chapter 11

Sorry this is late, I've been really preoccupied lately (mostly money troubles, getting sick, and breaking my glasses, but I wont bore you with the details). A lot of stuff happens in this chapter, though, so I hope you enjoy. Thank you for reading!

* * *

**Chapter Eleven**

**T**he next morning, I told Hermione about my idea.

"Would that work?"

She stared at me in shock. "I… I'm not sure. We should talk to the others, I think."

We met up with Neville and Malfoy in one of the unused classrooms, and spent the time between breakfast and our first exams discussing the plan. Though various small errors had been discovered, the main idea was sound and just needed a bit of tweaking to work. With everything decided, I assigned everyone to a job. Hermione would be in charge of the charm-work and build process, Neville and Malfoy would check the Yeerk Pool once a day to identify other Controllers and make sure the Yeerk's security didn't change, and I would follow Ron.

Feeling optimistic about the progress we had made, I went to my Potions exam. To my surprise, Hermione and Malfoy's discussion the previous day about Jiang's Observation actually helped me answer a few questions. The Potions practical was less easy. Snape loomed menacingly over my shoulder as I tried to remember how to brew a Forgetfulness Potion.

After that was the Defense Against the Dark Arts exam. It was my best class, so I guessed that I would be alright. When Professor Quirrell rounded the desks to pick up our completed exams, he gave me a smile.

"I'm sure y-you've done well, Mister P-Potter," he said. He was a nervous, timid man, having apparently had a bad run-in with a vampire during his travels. You couldn't help but feel a bit sorry for him. "Y-you always d-do so well in my c-class, after all."

"I hope so, Professor," I said.

He gave me a shaky little nod and resumed collecting papers. There was only one exam left after that, History of Magic. An hour of questions about dead wizards who had invented self-stirring cauldrons was just as tedious as it sounded. But finally it was over—no more exams, no more tests, nothing for the rest of the year!

"That's a load off my mind!" Ron exclaimed as we went outside, intent on spending the rest of the day enjoying the summer sunshine. "Even if we failed, there's nothing we can do about it now. Hey, let's meet up with Seamus and Dean for some football."

"Actually, Hagrid's invited us to his hut, you know, to celebrate the end of exams," I said. I only remembered because Hagrid had sent me a note to remind me.

Ron and I walked down to Hagrid's hut. Hagrid was sitting outside in an armchair, sleeves and trouser-legs rolled up to fight the heat and drinking directly from a huge metal pitcher of ice-cold homemade pumpkin juice.

"Harry, Ron!" he exclaimed, grinning broadly behind his bushy black beard. "Finally finished with yer exams, then! How do you think yeh did?"

I grumbled a little and shrugged.

"That bad, eh?" Hagrid said with a sympathetic grimace. "Sorry t' hear that. Where's Hermione?"

"She's busy working on a project. You know how she is," I said. "By the way, she asked me to see if you had any bits of wood she could borrow?"

"What size?" Hagrid asked.

"Not big, just sticks really. Maybe about this long?" I said, measuring out a few inches with my hands. "She needs a lot of them if you can, please."

"O' course, no trouble at all," Hagrid said. "Just gimme a moment ter bring them out—I'll get you two a few cups o' pumpkin juice while I'm inside."

"Thanks," Ron said.

Hagrid emerged a few seconds later with another, smaller pitcher, a basket full of sticks, and two big mugs. He set the basket down and poured our drinks. "I had these sticks fer kindlin', but considerin' the weather lately, I probably won't need any fires fer a while."

He set to work, breaking the sticks into smaller pieces as easily as if they were toothpicks. We chatted about school and ate Hagrid's homemade sandwiches. It was a perfectly enjoyable afternoon in the sun, much needed after days of being stuck in classrooms and caves.

Ron and I eventually said our goodbyes and I gathered up the sticks for Hermione. We crossed the grounds and entered the Great Hall, where we found Professor McGonagall talking to Professor Quirrell.

"Yes," she was saying, "I'm afraid that with the Headmaster gone for the evening, I—"

I froze, dread instantly pooling in my gut. "Dumbledore's gone?"

McGonagall turned to look at us. "Oh, hello Mister Potter. Yes, Professor Dumbledore is gone. He means to be away from the school for the rest of the night."

It felt like the ground had fallen out from beneath my feet. "Why did he go? Why must he be gone all night?"

McGonagall frowned. "Not that it's any of your business, but he's received an urgent summons from the Minister of Magic."

"But he can't leave!" I exclaimed. My scar started to burn and ache just thinking about it.

"Mister Potter! The Headmaster is an important wizard—he has other responsibilities than just the school," said McGonagall. "If he has to leave, that is his right."

"But you don't understand!" I said. "It—it's about the Philosopher's Stone."

McGonagall's jaw dropped. "How on Earth do you know—?"

"That doesn't matter now," I said. "The important thing is that Dumbledore was the only thing keeping Voldemort from—"

McGonagall and Quirrell stared at me, eyes wide. Quirrell, who had gone even paler than usual, let out a startled squeak and started stammering in earnest. "Y-you c-c-can't be serious, H-he Who M-must N-n-not be N-named is dead, everyone kn-knows that!"

"Potter, I don't know how you found out about the Philosopher's Stone, but I assure you that it's perfectly safe," McGonagall said, her brows furrowed. "And You-Know-Who is long dead, and even if he wasn't, he certainly wouldn't dare to show his face at Hogwarts. Now go on, and I'd better not hear about you upsetting the students with your wild theories."

"I'm not making this up!"

"Good evening, Mister Potter," McGonagall said sharply. She turned away down one of the corridors and Quirrell followed, nervously stuttering about the protections the professors had put around the Stone.

"You think You-Know-Who is trying to steal the Stone?" Ron asked. "But he's dead, he couldn't… isn't he?"

I didn't answer him. If Dumbledore was gone, I knew Voldemort would use the opportunity to get the Stone. How could I stop him if none of the professors would believe me?

We went up to Gryffindor tower. I gave Hermione the sticks she needed, and then she eagerly went to work. Ron asked me to play chess with him, but for a second night I was unable to focus on the game.

"Maybe McGonagall is right," Ron said. "Even if You-Know-Who does try to take the Stone, he won't get past the protections the professors have put around it."

"He will," I said. "He'll find a way."

"But what can we do about it?"

That was a very good question. It was a question that I considered through the rest of the rather abysmal game, and through a dinner which I only picked at, and through Malfoy's attempts to cajole me into giving him something for his birthday. He pulled me aside after I left the Great Hall. It seemed that nothing would completely dampen his enthusiasm to try making friends with me.

"Well, are you at least going to go to the Circle party tonight?" Malfoy asked. "I know it's really for the end of exams, but I'm going to pretend it's to celebrate my birthday."

I had forgotten about the Circle's party. Most of the school would be there, surely—a perfect opportunity for Voldemort to go after the Stone without being seen.

If no one else would stop him, it seemed obvious that I would have to be the one to do it. I didn't think I could fight Voldemort directly, considering what had happened in the forest. But if I could get to the Stone first… if I could take it before Voldemort could get his hands on it…

"No, I'm not going," I said. "I'm not feeling well. Keep an eye on Ron for me? Hermione's busy and Neville…"

"…Has no brains at all?" Malfoy suggested helpfully. "Alright, I'll keep an eye on Weasley."

I returned to my dorm and got my invisibility cloak from my trunk. Gryffindor tower was mostly empty—either the students were still at dinner, or would be going directly to the Circle party afterwards. I pulled on the cloak and made my way down to the forbidden third floor corridor. I approached the heavy door barring the way.

Behind it I knew there would be the massive three-headed dog, which Hagrid had named 'Fluffy'. Beyond that… I had no idea. I paused. Beyond this point, I knew there would be no going back. If I made it through the obstacles and took the Stone, it was likely that I would be expelled. If I failed… death.

But it had to be done. I couldn't stand by while Voldemort restored himself and resumed his reign of terror. If I had the opportunity to stop him, then I had to try. It seemed no different to me than when I agreed to fight the Yeerks. I had to try, because no one else could.

Freshly determined, I pointed my wand at the door-lock. _"Alohomora!"_

The lock clicked open and I pushed the door ajar.

As soon as I entered the room, the dog was on alert, all three noses sniffing in my direction. Though it couldn't see me, it could definitely smell me. I closed the door behind myself and tried to crouch somewhere that the dog wouldn't be able to reach.

After a few moments of thought, I decided that the best way to get past the dog would be to acquire it. Hopefully, Fluffy would be put into a stupor long enough for me to sneak by and go through the trap door he was guarding.

I took a second to calm myself and focus on Fluffy. Unsurprisingly, it's not very hard to focus on an giant, angry, three-headed dog when you're locked in a room with one. In fact, I would say it's pretty hard to focus on anything else.

One of Fluffy's massive heads swung closer, nose twitching and snorting as it caught my scent. Each head was the size of a small car. Every tooth was long as my forearm, and I got a very good look at them when the dog's lips drew back into a snarl.

Fluffy reared back, preparing to strike. I lunged forward, hands outstretched. My palms struck Fluffy's right foreleg just as the giant dog's jaws snapped over the place I'd been just a second before. I closed my eyes and forced myself to concentrate, despite being almost certain that Fluffy was about to eat me.

The attack never came. Fluffy had fallen into an acquiring stupor.

Knowing I only had a moment to spare, I rushed to the trapdoor and swung it open. I saw nothing but darkness below. There wasn't enough time to morph into an owl or Billywig, so I'd have to jump with no idea how far it was to the bottom of the tunnel.

Fluffy blinked and slowly shook each of his three heads. The dog was recovering and could attack at any second.

There was no other choice. I jumped.

I have no idea how far I fell through the darkness. All I knew was that I wouldn't survive the landing. I tried to keep calm and morph into Hedwig, but it was nearly impossible to focus with my stomach firmly lodged in my throat and my mind busy dreading the hard stone floor rising up to meet me, even if I had no idea when it would happen.

I was just starting to feel the itch of feathers growing on my skin when—_WOMP!_ I hit the ground, but it was much softer and springier than I'd expected. I tumbled end over end, half-human and half-owl, through squishy cords as thick as pythons. After taking a moment to finally finish the transformation, I looked around with my owl morph's sharp night-vision.

I was lying in the middle of a giant plant. It must have been planted there to cushion the fall. The thick, slightly furry vines grew all along the walls of the room, but the biggest, squashiest vines were on the floor near the plant's base.

On the opposite side of the chamber, there was a faint light shining from the end of a narrow passage. That was the only way out of the chamber, besides the tunnel I'd just fallen through. The Philosopher's Stone had to be somewhere beyond that corridor.

I was stretching my wings when I caught a glimpse of movement out of the corner of my eye. I turned to look and saw that the vines were moving. The plant was alive, like a Venus fly-trap or an Ambling Bramble, and it was searching for prey.

A vine suddenly looped around me, moving in a disturbingly snake-like fashion. I quickly took off before the vine could tighten its grip, narrowly avoiding a second vine that had almost snagged my talon. Heart racing, I swooped away down the corridor. I could hear something rustling and a light clinking sound of metal on metal.

Suddenly, I entered a brilliantly lit chamber with a high ceiling. Flying above me were what looked at first like hundreds of small, colourful birds, but when I looked again I realized that they were actually winged, flying keys. I flew over to the door across the chamber. It was locked, which didn't surprise me. It was obvious that I would have to catch one of the keys and use it to unlock the door.

Soaring up into the air, I chased the keys around the room. I guessed that it would probably be a big, old-looking key, to match the old-fashioned lock on the door.

One by one, I caught keys and carried them to the lock, using my talons to turn them, until finally I found a match. The lock clicked and the door opened, allowing me to swoop into the next room.

It was dark, but not so dark that I couldn't see that there were several, looming figures in the room. My heart gave an unpleasant jolt. I thought that I had been surrounded by some sort of monsters. But then the lights flared up— revealing a giant, life-sized chessboard. The looming figures I had seen were the chessmen. All around me were the black pieces, and across the board were the white pieces. None of the chessmen had faces.

I could see the door on the other side of the room. I flew over the black pieces and crossed the board. But when I tried to fly over the white pieces—CRACK!—the white king had drawn his sword and hit me with it, hard. I was thrown back across the room by the impact, in considerable pain and completely disoriented. Blood was dripping from my head when I landed. I quickly de-morphed to heal the injury.

It seemed I was supposed to play my way across the board to continue. But I wasn't a very good chess player, and too much depended on me. Considering the infinite stakes, I couldn't risk losing the game. I had to find another way.

I morphed into a Billywig. They can fly so fast that humans can't see them. I hoped that whatever allowed the chessmen to see would also be fooled.

Flying as fast as I could, I shot across the room. The chessmen made no move to attack me, but I feared that they would at any moment. I had to land and de-morph in order to open the door. The chessmen did nothing. It seemed that they couldn't tell that I was now standing behind them. I opened the door and left the room.

With the help of my morphs, I was making great time. As long as I made it through the final obstacles, it seemed incredibly likely that I would be able to find the Stone and take it before Voldemort could. I wondered what I would have to face next.

The dog had been Hagrid's obstacle, and that strange carnivorous plant must have been grown by Professor Sprout. The flying keys and the chessboard had to be Professor Flitwick and Professor McGonagall, though I didn't know who had made which. Most likely, that left Professor Snape's, Professor Quirrell's and Headmaster Dumbledore's obstacles.

At the end of the passageway, I opened another door. A horrible smell filled my nose. I could hardly breathe without pulling my robes over my face. Lying on the floor was a gigantic troll. I fought a troll earlier in the year, but this one was even larger. Luckily, it seemed to be unconscious. There was a bloody lump on top of its head.

Though part of me was glad I didn't have to fight the troll myself, it proved that I hadn't beaten Voldemort to the Stone. He had already made it this far through the obstacles. Maybe he'd already made it to the Stone itself.

I couldn't let him take it. I'd gone too far to turn back now. By the time I made it out and found someone who would actually believe what I had to say, Voldemort would have already escaped with the Stone, and then there'd be nothing left to stop him from regaining his power.

Even though I wouldn't have a chance in a fight against Voldemort, I couldn't just stand aside. I would either die in these tunnels or I would die later. Voldemort wouldn't let me live once he gained power. I certainly wasn't going to join him in order to save my life. So I would make my stand. And maybe whatever saved me that night ten years ago would save me again.

My mind made up, I continued on. I stepped carefully over one of the troll's massive legs and opened the next door. What I saw wasn't very intimidating. There was just a table with seven bottles standing in a line.

I stepped into the room. A fire immediately sprang up in the threshold behind me. The fire obviously wasn't the natural kind—the flames were dark purple. Across the room in another doorway, another fire had appeared at the same time, but that one was coloured black.

Wondering what to do now, I spotted a piece of parchment sitting on the table in front of the row of bottles. It was a riddle, saying that some of the bottles contained poison, some wine, one a potion to go back through the purple fire, and one a potion to go forward through the black fire.

I didn't have time to figure it out. Ashwinders were created by magical fires, so I hoped my Ashwinder morph wouldn't be hurt by the black flames. I used _Gearwe Awendendylic _and started to morph.

My skin became incredibly itchy until grey scales suddenly rippled over my body. As my face protruded and elongated, my eyes spread apart, losing their focus and strength. I fell forward onto my hands and knees, then onto my belly as my arms and legs began to suck back into my rapidly stretching body. My spine stretched out into a long tail.

_Hide, hide, had to hide, find a dark place for eggs, lay eggs, nothing will find them, safe place for the eggs— _I slithered underneath the table, leaving a trail of ash behind. _Lay eggs here, nothing will find them, nothing will see, eggs will be safe, eggs will make fire, eggs will live—_

_No! _I had to fight the Ashwinder's powerful instincts. After a few seconds, I regained control. After a little bit of trial and error, I was able to figure out how to slither without the Ashwinder's instincts guiding me. I slithered across the floor until I was in front of the black fire. In the back of my mind, the Ashwinder was telling me the fire was safe—the fire was home.

Assured that I would be able to pass through the fire unscathed, I slithered forward. The fire was all around me, but it didn't burn. Pleasant and warm, almost tickling where it touched my scaly skin, the fire filled me with energy.

I slithered through to the other side. I couldn't see well, but from what I could see, I was in a large chamber. It appeared to be empty, except for a large, rectangular shape in the distance. There wasn't much I could do while still in morph, so I returned to my own form.

Once I was human again and had human eyes, I could see that the rectangular shape was something I knew. It was the Mirror of Erised—a mirror that showed the person who looked into it their deepest desire.

Voldemort was nowhere to be found. Nor was the Philosopher's Stone.

Wondering what was going on, I took a few steps toward the mirror.

"Hello, Potter. I had wondered if I was going to meet you here."

I whirled around, heart pounding. Standing in the shadows beside the doorway was—

"Professor Quirrell?" I asked. "What are you doing here?"

There was a small smile on his face. He stepped out of the shadows. "It seems you aren't the only one who isn't what he appears to be."

He didn't stutter. He didn't twitch. He seemed perfectly calm. It sent shivers down my spine.

"When I saw you in the Forbidden Forest, I assumed that you were merely an exceptionally gifted owl Animagus, to have completed the transformation so young," Quirrell said. "Imagine my surprise to see you now in so different a form—and an Ashwinder, no less. How are you able to transform into more than one animal? What magic allows a first year student to do things that only a few fully trained wizards are able to manage?"

"You were in the forest?" I asked. A chill went through me. "You… You're working for Voldemort, aren't you? That's why you're here!"

Quirrell nodded. "You are far too nosy for your own good, Potter. You couldn't leave well enough alone, could you? You couldn't just go to the Circle party with your friends. And now look where it's gotten you."

He snapped his fingers. Ropes suddenly appeared out of thin air, binding me in place.

"So you've come here in some misguided attempt to stop me from taking the stone," Quirrell said. "All for nothing, I'm afraid. Soon Lord Voldemort will be reborn, and after he's found out the source of your strange transforming ability, he'll kill you."

"Don't do this!" I begged. "You can't possibly want Voldemort to come back! He's evil!"

Quirrell let out a quiet, sad little laugh. "You sound just like I did, once. I was young and foolish, with all sorts of ridiculous notions about good and evil. Lord Voldemort showed me the truth. He showed me how the world really is. You see, there is no such thing. Good and evil are only words. There is only power, and those too weak to seek it… Only with power do we regain control over our lives. Lord Voldemort has shown me this."

No. I refused to believe it. Voldemort was evil. The Yeerks were evil. That was real. Hermione, Neville, Malfoy and I were good because we fought the Yeerks, just like my parents were good for fighting Voldemort.

Quirrell walked past me and stepped in front of the Mirror of Erised. "This mirror must be the key to finding the Stone, but I can't seem to…" He wasn't talking to me any longer. Instead, he seemed to be talking to himself. "I don't understand… is the Stone inside the mirror? Should I break it?"

I began to think. If the Mirror of Erised really was the key to finding the Stone—perhaps, if finding the Stone was someone's deepest desire, the mirror would show them where it was hidden. I certainly wanted to find the Stone before Quirrell did. If I could look into the mirror without Quirrell noticing, I could find out where the Stone was hidden and think of a way to keep Quirrell from figuring it out. I leaned to the side, attempting to find a better angle to see the mirror.

"Help me, Master!" Quirrell pleaded. "I can't find it!"

"Use the boy…"

I jumped. The voice—it was the voice I had heard in the forest. My scar started throbbing. The voice seemed to come from Quirrell, but his mouth didn't move. Quirrell turned towards me.

"Use the boy."

"Yes—Potter, come here!"

The ropes released me and I fell to the ground.

"Come here," Quirrell said again. "Stand in front of the mirror and tell me what you see."

Cautiously, I took a few steps forward. I looked into the mirror, silently pleading that I would be able to see where the Stone was hidden. For several seconds, nothing seemed to happen. All I saw was my own reflection. I was starting to wonder if it had been broken somehow, when all of a sudden, my reflection moved.

In the reflection, I reached into my pocket and drew out a red gem that glittered brilliantly in the torchlight. I stared. It had to be the Philosopher's Stone. My reflection winked at me, then put the Stone back where he'd gotten it—I suddenly felt something heavy in my pocket.

I had the Stone! How it happened, I didn't know, but I had the Stone! If I could just find some way out without Quirrell noticing…

"What did you see?" Quirrell demanded.

"Nothing," I said. "It's just a mirror."

Quirrell cursed under his breath. "Get out of the way!"

I stepped back. Once Quirrell's attention was back on the mirror, I started to take more steps backwards, trying to move as silently as I could. Shaking with nerves, I glanced back at the black fire in the doorway. If I could sneak far enough away that I could morph without being noticed, I could go back through the fire, leaving Quirrell trapped.

Once I thought I wouldn't be seen in the mirror's reflection, I drew my wand.

"He lied!" the voice shouted. "He has the Stone!"

Quirrell spun around. "No! _Expelliarmus!"_

To my dismay, my wand leapt out of my hand and slid across the floor, far out of reach.

"Let me speak to him… face-to-face…"

"Are you certain? You aren't strong enough yet, Master."

"I have strength enough… for this…"

Hesitantly, Quirrell began to unwrap his turban. My thoughts raced. What was going on? Would I be able to get my wand if I made a run for it while he was busy? The turban fell away into a puddle of purple fabric. Quirrell turned slowly on the spot.

All of my half-made plans vanished instantly. On the back of Quirrell's head was a face—a terrible, inhuman face. Its skin was ghostly white, its glaring eyes fiery red, and it had only two small slits for nostrils. I wanted to scream. I wanted to run. But it felt as though my legs had been frozen stiff.

"Harry Potter…" it hissed. "See what I've become? Nothing but shadows and whispers… without form, unless I share the body of another… But unicorn blood has strengthened me, these past weeks… and once I have the Elixir of Life, I will be able to create a body of my own… Give me the Stone, and I will spare your life… Resist, and I will kill you and take it anyway…"

I shook my head. I knew I wouldn't be able to hand over the Stone. If Voldemort killed me… if I couldn't find a way to escape… I silently prayed that Hermione, Neville, and Malfoy would be able to fight the Yeerks without me.

"Don't be a fool," Voldemort said. "Did you know that your mother died trying to save you? You see… I would have been willing to let her live… but she tried to protect you instead… Give me the Stone, unless you want her to have died for nothing."

I backed away. There had to be something I could do to keep the stone away from him. But there was no escape. I could feel the heat of the black fire behind my back.

I reached into my pocket and wrapped my fingers around the Stone.

"Yes… There's a good, smart lad…Give me the Stone…"

"NEVER!"

I spun and threw the Stone as hard as I could at the fire behind me. I could hear it hit the wall in the other room and skip across the floor.

"No!" Voldemort screamed. "SEIZE HIM!"

Quirrell charged at me and grabbed my wrist. It instantly felt like searing hot needles were being stabbed into my forehead. I screamed and tried to pull myself away, but to my surprise, Quirrell let go on his own. The pain started to fade. I realized that Quirrell was hunched over in agony, staring at his hands.

"It burns!" he cried. "I can't—"

"Kill him! KILL HIM!"

While Quirrell was distracted, I tried to make a run for my wand. He got up and attacked again, throwing me to the ground and wrapping his hands around my throat. Though I was nearly blinded by the pain, I could see Quirrell screaming. He released me again, his hands bright red and covered in ugly, sizzling blisters.

I finally recovered my wand. _"Gearwe Awendendylic!"_

"STOP HIM! KILL HIM!"

I ran around behind the Mirror of Erised, trying to put some distance between us. I crouched down, focusing as hard as I could on my Ashwinder morph. It was so slow. Why did morphing have to take so long? Quirrell was getting closer and closer and I was still some horrifying mutated thing that couldn't move or defend itself—

In what must have been record time, the morph was completed and I slithered as fast as I could towards the fire.

"DON'T LET HIM ESCAPE!"

Quirrell grabbed me around the middle. Just like my burning scar, it seemed some things stayed with me when I morphed—Quirrell let out a howl of pain and threw me as hard as he could at the mirror. I struck the glass with a loud crack and fell to the floor. I couldn't move. My spine had been broken.

Without any other option, I de-morphed. I was exhausted. The pain in my scar and the strain of morphing so much was wearing down on me. Everything started to blur as I instinctively grabbed onto Quirrell's face—my head seemed to be burning with white-hot intensity, I could see Quirrell's flesh turn red and blistered, and Quirrell screaming and Voldemort shrieking _"KILL HIM! KILL HIM!"_—

Everything faded into silent, painless darkness.


	12. Chapter 12

I am SO sorry this took so long. I had to re-write a lot of this chapter and the next one (which will be the last chapter, btw). My sister and her new baby have been staying with us as well, so I've been kind of distracted.

* * *

**Chapter Twelve**

Slowly, I became aware of golden light and warmth. Someone was looking at me—wise blue eyes behind gold-rimmed spectacles, a long, slightly crooked nose, flowing white beard and hair…

"Good morning, Harry."

I blinked up blearily at the Headmaster. He gave me my glasses. Once I could see clearly, I realized that I was lying on a bed in the hospital wing. Piled high on a table beside my bed appeared to be the contents of half a candy-shop, and at the foot of the bed next to mine lay a sleeping black cat.

"What happened?" I asked. My voice was rough.

Dumbledore gave me a small smile. "That, my boy, is a long story."

"I thought I was going to die," I said. "I thought Quirrell was going to kill me—wait, he didn't get the Stone, did he? Voldemort—"

Dumbledore held up his hand. "It's quite alright, Harry. Neither Quirrell nor Voldemort were able to get their hands on the Philosopher's Stone. You threw the Stone through the fire, didn't you? That was quite a clever bit of quick thinking."

"How long have I been asleep?"

"Three days."

"Three days!" I exclaimed. "But what happened after I passed out?"

"Let me start at the beginning, which is quite the sensible place to start, don't you agree?" Dumbledore said. "You see, last summer I came to suspect that Professor Quirrell had fallen to Voldemort's influence. I couldn't confront poor Quirinus directly, knowing that Voldemort would kill him to prevent him from betraying his master's secrets. I had to find a way to lure Voldemort out into the open. I borrowed the Sorcerer's Stone from my old colleague Nicholas Flamel, intending to use the Stone as bait that Voldemort couldn't resist—the chance to regain his power."

"You knew Voldemort was going after the Stone?"

"Yes," Dumbledore said. "In fact, I was counting on it. The obstacles around the stone, while difficult enough that he would not become suspicious, would not be impossible to pass. And then the final obstacle, Severus's clever fire riddle, would allow Voldemort to enter the chamber but not to leave."

"The whole thing was a trap!" I exclaimed. "But when I tried to warn the professors—"

"Ah, yes. Minerva told me that you attempted to tell her," Dumbledore said. "But I believe you weren't alone?"

"Quirrell was with us…" I realized.

"Minerva couldn't let on about the trap while Quirrell was listening in, for obvious reasons," Dumbledore said. "By the time she left his company and tried to find you, you were already gone. She guessed what had happened and sent an urgent message to me. Call it modesty, call it an old man's foolishness, but I hadn't realized that Voldemort was waiting for me to leave the school. I returned as quickly as I could, arriving just as Voldemort abandoned Quirrell's body and left him for dead. Without a solid form, he slipped away."

"You mean Voldemort's still out there?"

"I'm afraid so," Dumbledore said.

"I—I'm sorry," I said. "I didn't know… I didn't mean to ruin things…"

"No, Harry, it is I who should apologize. I never meant for you to get caught up in this," Dumbledore said. "Though perhaps it was lucky that you did. I wasn't aware that Voldemort could abandon Quirrell's body so quickly. If things had gone according to my plan, Voldemort would have escaped to take over another poor soul."

"But isn't that what happened?" I asked. "Voldemort escaped…"

"You were able to hurt him, and hurt him badly," Dumbledore said. "He will need time to recover from this, perhaps years to regain even enough strength to possess another. You hurt him, in a way no other could."

"When I touched Quirrell, it was like I was burning him or something," I said. "But why?"

"Your mother," Dumbledore said.

I frowned. "I don't understand."

"You see, on the night Voldemort attempted to kill you, your mother did something he didn't expect."

"Voldemort said that she died to save me."

"Precisely. There is considerable power in such a sacrifice, made out of love. Power enough to do things that seem impossible," Dumbledore said. "To be touched by such devotion has left its mark on you—nothing so obvious as a scar. It is in your skin, your blood—your very soul. And so Quirrell could not touch you, sharing his heart and mind with Voldemort."

I sat in silence for a minute or so, thinking about my mother. I knew next to nothing about her. It was… hard to imagine. Someone who was willing to die to protect me. My eyes started to sting, so I quickly tried to change the subject. "What's happened to Quirrell? You said that Voldemort left him for dead… is he… is he really—"

"Dead. Yes," said Dumbledore. He sighed. "My original hope had been to extract Voldemort from him without harming Quirrell. But after a year of Voldemort's influence… perhaps his death was the kinder of possible outcomes."

Quirrell was dead, because of me. If I was to fight a war against the Yeerks, against Voldemort, he would only be the first of many. It felt like something very heavy was pressing against my chest. For the first time, I truly began to doubt.

"Where's the Stone now?" I asked.

"Destroyed, by the very fire you cast it through," Dumbledore said. He removed the Stone from his pocket and set it on the bed. It looked much the same as it had in the mirror's chamber, except that there was now a dark stain deep in the center. "The magical workings of a Philosopher's Stone are quite delicate. Now it is nothing more than a uniquely beautiful gem."

My eyes widened. "I'm sorry, I didn't know… What will happen to Nicholas Flamel?"

"Do not worry," Dumbledore said. He picked up the Stone again and looked it over before setting it on my bedside table, tucked among the colorful candy boxes. "Nicholas has lived many years, and had a full and happy life. When I informed him of what had happened to the stone, he didn't seem sad. I would almost say that he was at peace."

"I don't understand," I said. "He wants to die?"

"He has been alive for over six-hundred years. He has seen this world, and everything in it. Now, I believe he is ready to see what lies in the next," Dumbledore said. "To the well organized mind, death is but the next great adventure."

"The Stone is destroyed, so Voldemort can't use that," I said. "But he'll find some other way to come back, won't he?"

"I won't pretend to know the future," Dumbledore said. "But Voldemort is nothing if not relentless. He will continue to search for a way to regain his strength until there is nothing left of him. Nevertheless, Harry, while you may only have delayed his return to power, it will merely take someone else who is prepared to fight what seems to be a losing battle next time—and if he is delayed again and again, why, he may never return to power."

Dumbledore glanced away, a thoughtful expression on his face.

"In some ways, you are exceedingly lucky," Dumbledore said. "Don't forget that you do not have to face your battles alone."

The door opened. The sleeping cat's ear flicked at the sound, but it didn't wake up. Madam Merrythought entered the infirmary. "Headmaster, there you are," she said. "I need to speak to you, if you have a moment."

Dumbledore smiled at me. "I'm sure our Harry's had enough of an old man's ramblings for one day. His friends must be eager to see him."

"It is good to see you're well, Harry," Merrythought said. "We were starting to worry."

"I think I'm alright, now," I said.

"I'm glad to hear that," Merrythought said with a kind smile. "Now, Headmaster…"

"Of course, Madam," Dumbledore said. He stood and followed Merrythought out of the infirmary, patting the cat's head as he passed. The cat's bright yellow eyes snapped open in surprise.

Once the doors had shut, the cat stood up and stretched before padding its way across the bed and jumping down to the floor. I watched as the cat grabbed the bottom of the privacy curtain with its teeth and slowly pulled it shut.

"Er… and who might you be?" I asked quietly. The infirmary was empty, but I doubted Madam Pomfrey would consider it a good sign if she caught me talking to a cat.

[You're not even going to try guessing, first?]

"Malfoy," I said. "Why are you here?"

[Is that the thanks I get for keeping an eye on you?] Malfoy asked.

"You were asleep!"

[To be fair, you're incredibly boring when you're unconscious,] Malfoy said. [All you do is lay there and snore. No sleepwalking, no talking in your sleep—hardly entertaining.]

"I'll try harder to be more amusing when I'm asleep, then," I said. "Dumbledore said I was unconscious for three days. What's happened since then?"

[We haven't made our move against the Yeerk Pool yet, if that's what you mean,] Malfoy said. [We thought it would be best to wait for you.]

I nodded. "What else?"

[Granger's been researching morphs and defensive spells, as well as popping into the Yeerk pool every once and a while with Longbottom to keep an eye on things,] Malfoy said.

"And you've been watching me all this time?" I asked, brows arched.

[Please. We've had Longbottom doing this, most of the time. I've been working on a project of my own,] Malfoy said.

"What would that be?"

Instead of answering me, Malfoy began to de-morph. It seemed like he was trying to avoid the question. What was the assignment? I couldn't help wondering. He just said they didn't attack the Yeerk Pool. Hermione was researching, and Neville was keeping an eye on me. What else was there, except—

"Ron!" I exclaimed. "It's been three days, hasn't it? That's it, he's not a Controller!"

"Keep your voice down," Malfoy said. He glanced at me. The last parts of him to transform were his eyes, which were turning from yellow to grey as I watched. It may have been my imagination, but I thought there was something almost _sad_ in his expression. He turned away before I could get a good look.

"What is it?" I asked.

"Potter… he's…" Malfoy sat down on the edge of my bed and crossed his arms over his chest, avoiding my eyes. "Weasley's one of them. He's a Controller."

"You _liar!"_

Malfoy's eyes widened.

"This is low even for you," I said. "Just because you hate Ron—"

"That has nothing to do with—"

"You're just trying to make sure we don't replace you," I said. "That's it, isn't it?"

Malfoy scowled at me, a tinge of pink appearing on his cheeks. "Here I thought you hated me because I never wanted to be on this stupid team in the first place. Do let me know when you've made up your mind, Potter," he sneered, turning his nose up in the air. He stood and began walking away. "That way I can at least be consistently aggravating."

"No worries there!" I shouted, but it was no use; Malfoy had already left the hospital wing.

* * *

I don't know why I was so sure Malfoy was lying. Denial, I suppose. Directing all of my anger and frustration at Malfoy kept me from contemplating his words. As long as I could blame Malfoy for everything, I didn't have to accept the possibility that maybe, just maybe, he was right.

After I spent several hours stewing, Madam Pomfrey allowed Hermione and Ron to visit me. I wanted to tell Ron everything then and there, Malfoy's warnings be damned, but Hermione caught my eye and shook her head tightly while Ron wasn't looking. That was alright, I decided. All four of us should be there to tell him, anyway, and in a more private place.

As it was, I had plenty of other things to talk about. Hermione and Ron listened eagerly as I told them about the Philosopher's Stone, the protections around it, the confrontation with Quirrell and Voldemort, and my conversation with Dumbledore—obviously, I had to edit some details, like how exactly I had gotten past the obstacles around the Philosopher's Stone.

"Why didn't you tell us that you were going after the Stone?" Ron asked. "We could have helped you."

"I didn't want to drag either of you into it," I said. "If I'd gotten in trouble, or worse… I didn't want that to happen to you, too."

"We would have gone with you anyway," Ron said. "That's what friends are for."

I was reminded of what Dumbledore had said about not having to face my battles alone.

We chatted for a little while longer about minor details, until Ron asked, "Do you suppose Madam Pomfrey will let you out in time for the leaving feast?"

"I hope so," I said. I glanced at Hermione. It seemed she had the same thought I did—if we could make our move during the leaving feast, it was possible that there would be less people in the Yeerk Pool, and therefore less people who could get hurt. We wanted to kill Yeerks, not humans.

* * *

Later that evening, as I packed up the candy that was piled on the bedside table (apparently they were gifts from worried classmates), I found the destroyed Philosopher's Stone. Dumbledore had placed it among the candy-boxes when he came to talk to me. Now it was nothing more than a pretty bauble, no longer able to give the user all the money and immortality they desired. I wondered why Dumbledore gave it to me. Was it a trophy in honor of what I'd risked to keep it out of Voldemort's hands? Or a silent request to continue keeping it safe, so no one would be able to study it and make a new one? Whatever the reason, I put the Stone in my pocket.

To my surprise, I found my invisibility cloak folded up at the bottom of the pile of gifts. There was a new note written on it:

_Harry—_

_I hope that you will continue to use this cloak for great and noble things, and that you will someday learn not to leave it around the castle._

_Dumbledore_

It was the same handwriting from the notes I received before. That meant Dumbledore was the same person who gave me my father's invisibility cloak in the first place. It seemed obvious, looking back, but I couldn't help feeling surprised and intrigued.

I used the invisibility cloak to leave the infirmary. The only people who knew that I had been allowed to leave were Madam Pomfrey, Hermione, Neville, and Malfoy. We were hoping that if anyone wondered where I was during the leaving feast, they would assume I was still in the hospital wing.

In my dormitory, I deposited all of the candy on my bedspread and stowed the ruined Philosopher's Stone in my trunk, buried at the bottom with the morphing cube. Then I went to the wardrobe and retrieved the dragon-hide gloves, which still held the dormant Ashwinder eggs. I stowed the bundle in my pocket, folded up my invisibility cloak and stuffed it inside my robes, and went downstairs to the common room. Everyone had already left for the feast, so the common room was empty—except for Hermione.

She had built three pyramid-shaped frames out of the sticks I had gotten from Hagrid. Hanging from the top of the small pyramids were loops of dragon-hide, harvested from an old pair of gloves. Vials of orange potion were tied to the frames with twine.

"Neville and Malfoy are waiting for us in the caverns," Hermione said. "Do you have the eggs?"

"Yes," I said. "Ready?"

Hermione nodded. We gathered up the frames and huddled together under the invisibility cloak. We left the common room, heading for the large staircase shortcut that led from the sixth floor to the dungeons.

"Has Malfoy told you about Ron yet?" Hermione asked quietly once we were in an empty corridor.

"Don't tell me you fell for that," I said, ignoring the squirm of dread in my stomach. Hermione is a lot smarter than me. If she believed Malfoy…

"What do you mean?" Hermione asked.

"He's obviously lying to keep us from replacing him with Ron," I replied. "You know how they are."

"Malfoy doesn't even want to be on the team," Hermione pointed out. "He _wants_ us to replace him, remember? That was the only reason he agreed to be a part of this in the first place."

I shrugged. "Then he's after something else. Maybe he's doing it because of me. He hates me as much as he hates Ron."

"Hasn't he been trying to be your friend all this time?" Hermione asked.

"He doesn't want me as a friend, he just wants me as a trophy, so he can brag about being friends with the 'Boy Who Lived'," I said.

Hermione frowned at me.

"What?"

"He risked a lot to watch Ron for us, you know," she said.

"So? He just wanted to prove Ron was one of them," I said. "And then he lied when he found out he wasn't."

"Harry, he used his Chizpurfle morph," Hermione said. "He stuck to Ron for three days, only taking breaks when Ron was asleep or with us. He almost went over the two-hour time limit. Can you imagine what that would have been like? Being trapped as a _Chizpurfle_ for the rest of his life?"

I stared at her. "I… well, he was probably just…"

"Trying to keep us safe?" Hermione suggested. "Why would he go through all that if he was lying?"

"I…"

"Harry…" Hermione's face fell. "You shouldn't have heard it from Malfoy, I'm sure he was very rude about it. But he was telling the truth. Ron's… he's one of them."

"No," I said sharply. "He'd never—"

"He didn't have a choice. Remember what Elfangor said? Once a Yeerk gets in your head, then it has complete control over everything you do," Hermione said. She had tears in her eyes. "They want to do to everyone what they're doing to Ron right now. They want to make us their slaves. That's why we have to stop them."

I stopped walking and had to brace myself against the wall for a moment. The invisibility cloak slid off of us and fluttered to the floor. It couldn't be true. Ron, my friend, my best friend—the boy who only hours ago had listened eagerly to my story and offered his help if I ever needed it—couldn't have a Yeerk in his head. There would have been some sign, something that let me know he wasn't really my friend anymore, that he was just a puppet of some alien slug.

"Harry," Hermione said quietly. She put her hand on my shoulder. "Remember the plan."

That brought things back into focus. We had a plan. We were going to hurt the Yeerks, badly.

We'd make them regret ever coming to Earth.

"Let's go," I said, scooping up the invisibility cloak.

We went down to the bottom of the north tower staircase and found Malfoy and Neville waiting for us.

"Hello, Harry," Neville said, smiling a bit awkwardly. "I'm glad you're alright."

I nodded and glanced at Malfoy, who was ignoring all of us.

"Are you both ready?" I asked.

"Are you sure I should… What if I mess something up?" Neville asked.

"What do you mean, 'what if'?" Malfoy sneered.

"Malfoy, just shut up," I said.

Malfoy scowled and turned away, crossing his arms over his chest. I felt a twinge of guilt despite myself. I stubbornly ignored it.

"Alright, so we all know the plan?" I said. "You three fly in after about five minutes. Here are the eggs."

I carefully removed one of the gloves from the bundle and scooped one of the Ashwinder eggs into it. I gave the other glove with the remaining three eggs to Hermione.

"Remember," she said, handing me another vial of orange potion, "It's _Alohomora—_ make sure that the _'lo'_ is strong. That will give the spell more power."

"I've got it," I said. "I'll see you in a few minutes."

I covered myself with the invisibility cloak and made my way through the caves until I was at the entrance of the Yeerk pool. I took a breath and passed through the fake wall. Around the corner, down the stairs, through the hallway—and I found myself inside the Yeerk Pool.

As we'd suspected, there weren't many people at the pool. There were only a handful of unfamiliar adults imprisoned in the cages. I felt foolish for hoping I'd see Ron there—the students were supposed to be at the Circle party, after all. We couldn't free Ron tonight. But we would soon. I'd make sure of it.

Nothing had changed in the Pool that I could see. Silently, I crept down the stairs and snuck into the side-cavern that I knew would contain the security station. I found a Hork-Bajir monitoring the screens.

One agonizingly careful step at a time, I began to creep towards the security station. I had no idea how well a Hork-Bajir could hear, or how powerful its sense of smell was. All I could do was take each step and hope that I wouldn't be discovered. I barely breathed.

Finally, I reached my destination. Eyes fixed intently on the Hork-Bajir, watching for any indication that it had sensed my presence, I crouched down until I could reach underneath the control array. I slowly pulled the warm bundle of dragon-hide out of my pocket. I gently set the egg on the ground. Surrounded by stone and metal, there was little that the egg would be able to ignite—at least on its own.

I extracted the orange vial and removed the stopper as quietly as I could. Muscles tense in preparation to run, I dumped the contents of the vial over the egg.

Instantly, the egg erupted into flames. I recoiled, pulling away as fast as I could. Trying to stay calm and quiet, I quickly vacated the side-cavern.

A few seconds later, a loud bellow indicated that the Hork-Bajir had noticed the fire. A fire-extinguishing system was set off, raining water down from the ceiling. But I knew the water would do nothing to stop a magical fire. A blaring alarm began to sound. The Taxxons and the wizard-Controller guards rushed to the scene of the blaze. I ran towards the cage where the hosts were being kept, but as I looked back, I could already see Ashwinders beginning to slither out into the main cavern.

Just then, the others arrived. They flew into the cavern in owl morph, carrying Hermione's wooden pyramids in their talons. Inside the pyramids, held loosely by the dragon-hide loops and protected by a cushioning charm, were the remaining three Ashwinder eggs.

The owls split up, heading for different targets. Hermione flitted quickly into the communications center, Malfoy swooped into the armory, and Neville circled the main Yeerk Pool chamber. I arrived at the cage and pointed my wand at the lock. _"Alohomora!"_

After a tense second of uncertainty, the lock clicked open. The people inside the cage realized that they were no longer trapped and quickly took the opportunity for freedom. They raced towards the fireplace, using the Floo powder to escape while the guards were busy.

I heard an explosion from inside the communications center. Hermione flew back out into the main cavern. [Now, Neville!]

Neville let go of his frame. It plummeted down to land next to the Yeerk Pool itself. The frame and the egg were protected by the cushioning charm, but the vial of orange potion that had been dangling below it broke upon impact. The frame and the egg were engulfed in fire which near-instantly grew over ten feet in height and started to spread around the Yeerk Pool as more eggs were laid and began to ignite.

The wizard-Controllers were trying desperately to freeze the eggs that the newborn Ashwinders were laying all throughout the Yeerk Pool complex, but there were just too few of them and too many Ashwinders. New fires were erupting everywhere.

Suddenly, there was an earth-rattling explosion from the armory. The force was enough to knock me off my feet. Malfoy flew out of the cavern as fast as he could. [We might want to get out of here!]

[What is that?] Hermione asked.

[Their weapons can't stand the—]

KABOOOOOM!

Once again I found myself tossed to the ground. Malfoy dropped out of the air and crashed not far from me, completely dazed. I quickly pulled him underneath the invisibility cloak and scooped him into my arms.

I got to my feet, ears ringing, and ran up the stairs. Hermione and Neville swooped overhead and flew past me into the hall. I followed, the ground shaking beneath me.

Finally, we were out. We went to the Transfiguration courtyard exit, where we stopped so Malfoy could de-morph to heal himself. The others de-morphed as well. Gasping in the fresh evening air, we looked back the way we came and waited in hesitant silence. No Hork-Bajir or Taxxons emerged from the caverns. No wizard-Controllers appeared to take us away.

After a few seconds, I couldn't help but laugh. Our first attack against the Yeerk Pool, and it was more successful than I had dared to imagine. I knew the wizard-Controllers would eventually stop the fire, but not before it had completely destroyed all of the machinery, technology and weapons. Hopefully the explosions would even cause a cave-in.

Joining in on my relief and high-spirits, Hermione, Malfoy and Neville all began to laugh with me. Hermione pulled all of us into an exuberant hug. No one, not even Malfoy, tried to push her away.


End file.
